


Iris of All Trades

by 5pmclouds



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, Mentioned Steve Trevor, mentioned amanda walker, mentioned diana (wonder woman)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-12
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-08-22 19:59:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16604540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5pmclouds/pseuds/5pmclouds
Summary: When she was ten years old, her best friend saw his mother murdered right in front of him and his father framed for the crime. He believes that his father is innocent, that the man in yellow did it. While her father doesn’t believe him, she does. He is Barry Allen, her best friend, the person who she loves the most in the world. How could she not believe him? And she, Iris West, will always be there to believe in him and help him find the impossible. She just didn’t expect the impossible to find her way before it found Barry, or rather her friend.





	1. The Pilot

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy. I apologize if the OCs annoy you. Lady Faith is based on Faith (New Earth) from DC Comics. This is my first The Flash fanfiction story so bare with me. Un-beta'd so I apologize for any mistakes.

“Daddy?”

Six-year-old Iris West wanders downstairs in search of her father. It’s late and she has school tomorrow but she had a nightmare about a fire and her mother. There’s an empty bottle of whiskey next to Joe’s spot at the dining table.

“Hey, pumpkin.”

He’s drunk. He only calls her _pumpkin_ when he’s drunk. Iris walks towards him cautiously, concern in her eyes. “Are you okay, daddy?”

Joe moves a hand towards her and Iris tenses a bit, then relaxes when he softly cups her face. She knows that he’s never hurt her drunk but something told her that someone else did. Iris closes her eyes for a moment, leaning towards his warmth before opening them. He’s looking at her with a glazed look and a sad smile.

“How could Francine do such a thing when she was with you? How could she be so reckless around you?” _What?_

“Ira and Nadine would have watched you better,” He continues, talking about her maternal uncle and aunt. “Probably would have loved you better than Francine too.”

What did her mother do that was so reckless? Did she not love her? Was she not good enough for her?

“Although, it depends if you’re smart enough to catch Ira’s attention.” Joe chuckles quietly.

Iris hears it though. She remembers her Uncle Ira, a bit absent-minded during the few times she saw him but kind. He talked a lot about physics. Her family said he was brilliant, his son and her cousin Rudy said that was something she’d never be.

Rudy’s words always stuck with Iris, and now her father’s as well. Quickly, Iris runs back to her room with silent tears and cries. Then a soft warmth surrounds her. It’s comforting, powerful but soothing.

_It’s alright, Iris. We’ll protect you._

The voice lulls her back to sleep. The next morning, Joe doesn’t remember a thing. Iris just smiles and hugs her father, keeping what happened and those words to herself.

\- : - : - : -

“Hey Iris, I just got off the train at Starling City. It’s actually quite beautiful here, we should visit sometime. Maybe, uh, maybe just you and me? And-and Joe! If he wants to,” Barry says from the voicemail. “On second thought, that might not be a good idea. Especially since I’m not... I’m not supposed to be here right now.” She giggles as she walks to her car, class has ended and she needs to leave.

“Also thanks again, Iris, for covering for me.” The soft change in his tone makes her pause from opening the door. “I know that I came here on a whim to investigate a break-in and it might not be the, uh, the best reason to leave work. But thank you for believing in me and helping me try to find the impossible.”

A warm yet guilty feeling spreads through her once the voicemail ends. Before Iris leaves her parking structure at Central City University, she texts him: **No problem, Bear. What are best friends for? Just let me know when you’re on your way back home. I miss you already.**

When Barry left, she told Captain Singh and Joe that he caught food poisoning and wouldn’t be able to work for a while. They grumbled at the fact that their only CSI was sick but relented after she said that someone from an external lab could analyze data samples for them while Barry gets better. It isn’t the first time they’ve done it.

The case of files and data samples sat in the back of her car, safely secured as she drives to an expensive-looking apartment complex with a gate and underground parking. A smile grows on Iris’s face, excited and curious to read through the files and see what crimes have recently been committed. She carries her stuff to the third floor, opening the fifth door on the right, roughly throwing her backpack onto the couch and gently placing the case on the kitchen countertop. Her phone buzzes: **You’re late.**

Shit. Iris rushes to her room of the apartment, grabbing her bag and goes back to the kitchen for the case. She grabs the pocket watch necklace from her neck and clicks the button that opens the cover twice. Instead of its usual mechanical hand-dial clock, it switches to a digital one. She touches the acrylic front gently to allow a holographic screen to appear in mid-air. Iris types in her destination, closes the necklace and presses on the button long enough for it to start glowing. At one moment, she stood in the middle of the apartment, the next Iris stands in a white clear room on a large black platform machine.

Iris walks out of the teleportation chamber, moving onto the hallway and into the command center. Catherine Arcelia Marlowe stands near the monitors, talking to Douglas Parson who is behind the central computers. Her brown hair moves around her enthusiastically as she speaks about the current research project she is supervising. Catherine’s blue-eyed gaze moves from Douglas’s to Iris’ and her expression brightens. “Iris!”

Said girl quickly sets the data samples on a nearby desk before Catherine gives her a tight gripped hug. Douglas rolls his grey eyes and shakes his black hair at them. “You’re late.”

“Class ran late and I _literally_ just got to Max’s apartment when you texted me!” Iris defends herself.

“And where is he?”

“Exam, he’s coming afterward.” Iris places her bag on the desk.

“Fine, now let’s start training.”  

\- : - : - : -

Iris and Douglas’ gazes continue to switch between watching Catherine, or rather _Lady Faith_ , work through the training simulations that Iris and Max had designed and checking on how her vital signs and overall health are being affected.

“Her pulse and respiration rate just increased, what did she do?”

“She used two abilities at once.”

Lady Faith doesn’t have just one ability, she had multiple. The ability of flight, teleportation, telekinesis,  energy projection, and calming aura; although, she doesn’t have the ability of super healing.

“Her body temperature is getting high, I think we’re done with holographic simulations for today,” Douglas says. Iris relays his message to Catherine through her ear communicator within her purple and white supersuit.

The brunette takes off the silver bracelets that help her transform into Lady Faith as she walks out of the simulation room. Beats of sweat run down her forehead as she pants. Even though she has had three years to understand her abilities, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t take a lot of energy out of her. Iris and Douglas walk out of the control room, a towel and water bottle in the former’s hands while the latter leads her to the medical bed. He takes the towel and water bottle to give to Catherine as she sits on the medical bed while Iris gets the first aid kit.

She cleans up and wraps her bruises as Douglas goes over her biometrics from the training simulations. “Your heart rate increased when the ceiling started to collapse, remember to stay calm. Your energy levels started to decrease when you were flying and using energy shields if you use too many abilities at once you would have fainted…,” he continues on.

Catherine rolls her eyes and pouts. “Yeah, yeah, but I still fought them off good, right?”

Douglas chuckles. “Yes, Blue eyes, you did great.”

Iris packs up the first aid kit and leaves the room the moment they start to kiss. She could’ve easily interrupted them, but she has other things to do. She grabs her stuff in the command center and walks down the long corridor, up the stairs, and towards the door that only opens from face and fingerprint recognition. Once given access, she pushes the door open.

Scientists in lab coats and people wearing guest passes surround her vicinity. Iris walks swiftly through the crowd in elegant ease. Some of the scientists greet her as she walks down the halls, up two flights of stairs, and into her lab.

The rest of her time there, Iris reads through the files, learning about the homicides and auto theft, the witness reports, and looking at the size, shape, and overall appearance of the crime scene pictures. There’s a knock on the door as she places a blood sample from a piece of fabric into the centrifuge. “Who is it?”

“Hey Hot Pursuit, you gonna let me in?”

After starting the machine, Iris opens the door and hugs Max Bentley. Despite being younger than her, he is a foot taller and usually misidentified as her brother. She doesn’t really see the resemblance.

“How was your exam?”

“Okay, too many questions in my opinion, but at least they were easy.” He shrugs.

Iris rolls her eyes. “Well not everyone is a genius majoring in computer science wanting to become a software developer like you.”

Max just gives her a cheeky grin. “So how’d Lady Faith’s training go?”

He’s already gone through Catherine’s biometrics with Douglas, so they discuss improvements while Iris goes through her finished DNA analysis. From the apartment homicide case, she had cross-checked with the other samples and concluded that the third roommate was the one who murdered their first roommate Mendoza and framed the second.

Max finishes outlining the different training simulations that they will create next week as she writes out her report for Captain Singh. The one-way mirror windows that surround the building show that it’s dark out as they walk down the stairs. Only a couple scientists and researchers are still at their workstations doing some late night experiments. The few that see them go down to the basement floor don’t say anything, knowing that they aren’t permitted while knowing who is. They’re oblivious to the fact that the basement is the secret base of operations for the working team of Lady Faith.

There’s still three more cases with samples that Iris needs to analyze, but she’s working the closing shift at Jitters and had told her father she would be home afterward. But home is in Central City and Iris is in the Marlowe Research Facility in Janelia City on the other side of the country three hours ahead. Looking down at her pocket watch necklace, the dimness of the clock screen indicates that she needs to add more Barry sand in the back. She doesn’t need to use the Barry sand to get back to Central City, but she’ll need more sand in order to teleport with the necklace again.

Max and Iris stop by the equipment room, storing some black sand into her necklace and some into his watch before saying goodbye to Catherine and Douglas who are talking while on comms. It’s weird how a metal that came out of nowhere can help create a portable, wearable teleportation device, just like the other piece of metal that shocked Catherine and gave her superpowers. 

\- : - : - : - 

 They teleport back to the apartment that Catherine leased for Max while he’s studying and as a Central City base to focus on any Lady Faith work without traveling back to Janelia City. She hugs him goodbye, sisterly advising him to study hard before driving to Jitters.

The smell of coffee welcomes Iris the moment she opens the door, relaxing her body and making her smile. It’s her second favorite smell. In the back, her coworkers discuss the rumors that someone might be getting a promotion. Hopefully, it isn’t her.

Despite not being a licensed researcher or scientist, Catherine pays the three of them bi-weekly for working at the Marlowe Research Facility as she is the owner and executive director. Douglas is justifiable because he works security and as her bodyguard (she just pays him more), but Max and Iris are there for Lady Faith work.

Although, Iris has been there from the creation of the research facility and is practically the co-executive director she doesn’t really count it. There are times like today when she uses her lab to run data and samples for the CCPD. Max and Iris’ designs and patents can’t really be paid since working for a superhero isn’t a job that people can know about, but Catherine is stubborn and compassionate and _I’m the heiress of Marlowe Industries! You guys are_ _literally_ _my first group of_ _real_ _friends. So goddamn it, let me do what I want!_

She also says that she’s paying Iris for writing about her.

When Team LF started, Catherine wanted the secret to remaining between the three (later four when Max found out) of them, so they couldn’t tell their parents or siblings or Barry. It was hard not telling him, especially since Iris would ask him ‘hypothetical’ questions when they were trying to create something. And since he helped create the teleportation sand, it’s only right to name it after him.

But it is not Iris’ secret to tell and what could she say? The piece of metal that gave Catherine her superpowers had vanished once she fainted. There was nothing that could lead Barry towards finding her mother’s killer, yet it was still hard not to tell him. After all, she told him everything.

Iris had asked one of her friends who had recently graduated with a doctorate in psychiatry degree and was doing her residency at the Arkham Asylum in Gotham for help. Harleen Quinzel advised that since she couldn’t speak about it that she could write about it.

“Keep an online diary or write in a journal,” Harleen had said. “That way you can express everything you want about what’s going on.”

And so _The Pyxis_ was born. An anonymous blog that Catherine was aware of and knew that Iris was writing about her alter ego to cope keeping a secret from Barry. What started as a way to release lead to the growth of her desire to seek the truth, writing to an invisible audience with a fierce passion. 

///

#### THE RISE IN CRIME IN JANELIA CITY

_Posted on 04/28/20XX @ 15:46_

_Janelia City is a growing tech hub and constantly have new people moving in to soak up its sources and intelligence. While it’s a great city for people to learn about technology and engineering and chemistry, it is still a city to be cautious of during the night. The increase in people moving has caused landowners to raise the rent and kick out those who can’t afford it._

_What choices do these people have left when they’re kicked out onto the streets? While I don’t believe that stealing and going towards a life of thievery is a good way to go, I understand where these people are coming from. But you have to understand that these people are hurt and upset and angry, and they want revenge._

_Have you heard of Slipknot? The black-suited man with durable ropes? He used to work for one of the chemical companies in Janelia but lost his job and his home due to new people moving in and needing work and shelter. He’s intelligent, like most of the people in Janelia City, and is the one who created a chemical adhesive that made his ropes indestructible. From the footages and pictures_ _here_ _, it’s easy to tell that Slipknot is a master of using ropes and not afraid to kill anyone in his way._

_According to sources close to him, it’s easy to tell that his revenge was focused on his ex-landlord, ex-boss, and the people who replaced him and took his home. Slipknot is one of the many people who has been hurt by the increasing population in Janelia and won’t be the first to enact their revenge. At least Lady Faith seems to be handling them well, a superhuman using her abilities for good._

_So to the people of Janelia, I caution you to stay aware of your surroundings and let me know if there’s anything to report on._

_Always run towards the truth,_

_The Pyxis_

///

 It grew. Her blog grew as she wrote more posts and articles on Lady Faith’s fights with vivid descriptions and background information on the criminals. Douglas and Iris weren’t the best at hacking but knew enough to gain access to the files from the Janelia City Police Department. She would read police reports and rewrite the basic information on the blog, as well as her own sketch of the criminal.

There would be days where Iris would stay in Marlow Research, watching Catherine fight through the footage of the local surveillance cameras on the monitors and give her advice through the communicators on her super suit. Then there were days where she would trail close behind Catherine to take photographic evidence of the battles.

Iris was surprised by the response to her blog, people interested in the impossible superhero fighting intelligent revenge-seeking villains occurring in their city. But then again it isn’t like the impossible and paranoia isn’t happening in cities like Metropolis and Gotham.

It was fascinating finding out about the people Lady Faith had recently found and what their reasons were. It made her blog more opinion than fact when she included possible reasons on why they would do such a thing. But she can’t just write about a person with a fully negative viewpoint, especially when she doesn’t know the full truth. As Sherlock had said to Watson during the Case of a Study in Pink, “It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biased the judgment.”

It causes some debate within the comment boards on whether their actions were justifiable or not, but the majority of her readers understand (and enjoy having a chance to name the villain, 78% chose the name Slipknot).

They ask if she’d try to reveal the identity of Lady Faith which she respectfully and strongly admonished saying that she had her reasons and they should be thankful for what she has done so far and not push it. Douglas and Iris tried to create a firewall to protect their site from being hacked, not a strong one but enough that people wouldn’t be able to find her location. Their attempt wasn’t enough and was what caused Max Bentley to become a part of the team.

He was a high school junior when Iris first met him. During freshman year at Northwestern University, one of her science classes was giving students extra credit if they wrote about any of the high school science fairs occurring that week. She had watched him argue with his partner which accidentally lead to a broken project, and had decided to cheer him up. He didn’t have the best situation, a foster child who would leave his foster home once he turned 18 and wouldn’t have enough money to find a place to live or to further his education.

He had found her blog two years later by accident and grew interested in the possibility of superheroes. Originally, Max hacked her site so that she could blackmail the writer into letting him meet Lady Faith. He didn’t know that it was Iris, and he didn’t realize that Iris had known him long enough that she would help him. Now, he’s attending CCU with her while being the computer genius of Team LF.

So technically, Iris has three jobs, wait, well four soon. In a couple of days, she’ll be a therapist intern at the Central City Psychological Clinic about twenty minutes away from campus. Barry convinced her to put her Bachelors in Psychology to use to gain some work experience so that once Iris graduated with her PhD in Criminal Psychology it wouldn’t be too hard for employers to hire her.

She debated on the internship when they discussed it in his lab weeks ago, mostly knowing that it would make her life much busier since being a member of Team LF isn’t exactly a nine-to-five job. But she remembered the smile on his face.

“I feel like a lot of people would be missing out on what you can do, even as an intern,” Barry said. “You’re Iris West, you’re intuitive and you’ve not only helped me but other students in high school cope with their issues and illnesses. You’re always helping everyone and you make everything feel better. You make _me_ feel better, like there’s nothing wrong with me, like I’m not alone, that I have someone to talk to. And talking to you is better than talking to all those psychiatrists Joe made me see.”

Her heart fluttered at his explanation and smile grew on his face just as big as his. Barry’s the reason why she agreed to apply for the internship. He helped her fill out the application and read through her essays and prepare for her interview, and he was there when Iris found out that she got in. The proud look on his face is something she never plans on forgetting.

\- : - : - : - 

Iris frowns at her phone. There aren’t any messages from Barry. It was supposed to be a quick trip to Starling City to see if the ‘impossible break in’ with the rumors of a man who can bend steel with his hands (although, Iris knows that the man who can bend steel isn’t in Starling City) would help provide clues to solving his mother’s murder. He’s supposed to tell her if he’s staying there longer. There’s a gut feeling that something isn’t right but Iris smiles at her father during dinner and answers vaguely on where Barry is. She texts him her usual **Goodnight, Care Bear!** And waits for his usual goodnight message but never receives it. Her instincts tell her that something is about to occur, but she doesn’t know if it’s a good or bad thing.

He arrives at the precinct a couple days later when Iris is giving Captain Singh back her completed case reports. Barry rushes over to where they are, about to ramble an excuse but Captain Singh stops him before he can speak. “Good to have you back, Allen! Wonder what you ate that caused you to have such bad food poisoning.”

He gives Iris a confused look as they walk up to his lab. He was gone longer than they planned so she lied about him having a weak immune system and that it took longer for the vomiting and diarrhea to fade away. She also tells him that all of the data samples that he needs to go through were taken to an external lab and are almost done being analyzed (just one more case then she’ll be done).

Barry sighs in relief before talking about meeting Dr Martin Stein on the train back and how they discussed physics and the particle accelerator that is being activated tomorrow. Iris nods at his story, wondering for a moment if Stein knew her Uncle Ira while making sure to not let Barry see that half of her attention is on the messages Douglas, Max, and Catherine are sending her about a possible supervillain. Luckily Joe walks in before Barry notices.

“Barry, there’s been a confrontation down by 13th street. Two dead, one injured. We’re needed at the crime scene." Joe says then turns to Iris. “Don’t you have a class starting soon, baby girl?”

“Right, an elective. British Literature, right?” Barry comments.

“Yes.”

It’s an online class but they don’t need to know that. She needs a reasonable excuse for when she needs to go to Janelia City. They exit the precinct at the same time, driving in opposite directions.

“Ok, so apparently this guy is able to use energy projection like me but it seems that he’s able to construct objects out of blue flames as well,” Catherine says when Iris arrives.

She points to the computer at the male figure wearing a cobalt blue super suit with a silver mask. On the screen, he’s confronting the police who are trying to get him to surrender. Blue flames came out of his hands that soon transformed into a sword. When the police began to shoot, he was able to block them with his sword before disappearing.

“How do you guys think he got his abilities?” Iris asks the group.

“Honestly, I have no clue,” Catherine admits.

“Do you think it’s similar to how you go your powers?” Douglas asks his girlfriend. She shrugs.

“I ran a scan and searched through the systems. He’s last been seen eighteen months ago in Kyanite City,” Max states.

Iris looks over to Max’s screen where the man was fighting off the Kyanite City Police Department. There was a close up on him when a bullet managed to strike his arm, but it seemed to quickly heal with blue flames.

“Great, this guy has healing abilities while I don’t,” Catherine grumbles.

“We don’t know anything about him yet guys, this is one of our first sightings of him,” Iris reminds him. “Let’s observe and wait until we know what he can really do.”

The only physical description they have of him is that he’s tall, Caucasian, with brown hair and dark eyes. There were times Iris thought he looked familiar but couldn’t place her finger why. Something tells her that his eyes should be green, but they aren’t.  

\- : - : - : - 

 She calls Barry later that night. He talks about how even though he’s glad that Captain Singh didn’t find out and threaten to fire him, her father did. Joe lectured Barry and said that he’s lucky that Iris knew people who worked at an external lab that were willing to analyze data and write reports for free.

“I honestly don’t know why anyone would want to do a forensic scientist’s job for free,” Barry says. “Especially since she does a good job at it too!”

“She?”

“Her handwriting,” Barry states. “It has a feminine touch. Anyways, Singh would not stop gloating about how detailed and on time the reports were. I agree they are well-written when I took a look at them, they kind’ve reminded me of your detailed essays, Iris. With enough experience, she’ll make a great CSI.”

The small bubble of fear when Barry said that her reports reminded him of her disappears into a sense of satisfaction at the rest of his words. There are times when she feels that Barry is too smart to be around her. He would sometimes have to explain in laymans terms, and Iris can’t help but feel like he should be surrounded by people who understand what he’s saying and appreciates him just as much as she does. He deserves someone that he doesn’t have to revise his explanations for.

She takes great pride in knowing that, despite not having a double degree in forensic science and criminology, her self-learning, self-teaching, and self-education for the past couple years have become good enough for Barry’s approval. Training to become an unlicensed professional forensic scientist was hard work, constantly having to double and triple check her work with Abby Scuito, a young intern from her other job that wants to become a forensic scientist. It took a while before Abby told Iris that her casework was professional enough and that she didn’t need to constantly get her approval for everything.

She arrives at the precinct the next evening after a shift at Jitters, two classes, training at the clinic, and a kickboxing session with Douglas. Captain Singh greets and thanks her once again when she gives him the last case report. It was everyone’s assumption that the victim died from inhaling too much smoke but, due to the swelling on her neck and small red spots on her earlobe, there were signs that someone had strangled her then left her there to die. The police will need to cross-check who met with her before the fire and get some fingerprint samples to match the thumb bruise on her neck.

At the corner of Iris’ eye, she sees a man with blonde hair and blue eyes talking to her father and looks away in surprise. No, it can’t be. She shakes her head and thinks about the reasons why the criminal would do such a thing and hopes that the blonde man isn’t who she thinks he is. Walking up to Barry’s lab, he’s on his computer looking at something and Iris smiles, momentarily forgetting everything else. “We’re not going to be late for this particle accelerator thing, are we?”

Barry looks up from his screen and smiles at her. “There’s no way I’m going to be late to something like this. Dr Harrison Wells is going to be giving a speech!”

“Hmm, given your track record you can’t say for sure. Even if said favorite scientist is going to be there,” Iris teases while reaching towards the bag of food on his table. “Are you almost done?”

“Uh yeah, give me a sec.” He pulls out a file and begins to write. “Need to finish this first, and hands off my fries!”

Iris rolls her eyes. “I’m stress eating over my dissertation!” And other things. “If I don’t graduate soon, I’m going to be more muffin top than woman.”

“You look amazing,” Barry compliments before quickly explaining the Mardon brothers robbery and how he found animal feces on the ground to analyze.

“Wow. Usually, you’re more drowned with work.”

“Not always! Plus I think it’s because of that external lab that you have connections to. I didn’t have to worry about any late assignments when I came back. I was able to finish yesterday’s work this morning.”

“See Barry, aren’t you glad you have me in your life to help make it easier?” Iris can’t help but say.

He gives her this look that makes her body shiver in warmth. She’s seen it many times before like when they were in his freshman dorm saying goodbye or during her junior prom. That wistful, rapt expression with his body relaxed as his gaze is fully on Iris. “Yeah, yeah I’m really glad I have you in my life, Iris.”

_Not yet_ , a voice whispers. Suddenly, the intensity of his gaze feels too much for her. A jolt of trepidation runs through her body, and she quickly starts to speak.

“Is this the last report you need to write? Cause we need to leave soon and I’m curious on this atom smasher.”

“Last report, I promise and it’s not an atom smasher. It’s a particle accelerator.” Barry says, rolling his eyes.

There’s a glint of sadness in his eyes that Iris can’t help but feel. “Then clarify it to me before we leave.”

Barry’s eyes light up at the chance of explaining and stats to talk about quantum theory and subatomic particles and electric fields. He’s absolutely adorable with his expressive eyes and fast gestures. Iris understands about half of what he’s saying, a feeling of content as he spoke, happy at the fact that she doesn’t need to ask him to simplify his explanation.

_Iris West is not smart enough nor does she know enough science to join our organization._

Doubt runs through her as that thought comes back to her mind after so many years. Even though she doesn’t need him to get her an easy explanation, he could be spending time with someone who could be getting excited with him about the particle accelerator. “You gotta get yourself a girlfriend.”

His face falls a bit and he opens his mouth-

“Leave him alone, he’s working.”

Iris greets her father as he asks Barry for the robbery report on the Mardon brothers. He grabs the file that he had finished writing in moments ago.

“The fecal matter I found was cow manure with traces of oxytetracycline in it. There are only four farms in Central City that still use it in their fields.” Barry hands Joe a piece of paper he just printed. “You should find a pretty sweet Shelby parked in one of them.”

Immediately, Iris grins at her father. “So Dad, Barry just solved your manure problem and this was his last case for today. Think we can head over to STAR Labs now?:

Joe examines the paper for a moment before looking up at them. Barry and Iris smile brightly at him, similar to when they were kids and he found them listening in on his phone calls and police radios or wanted play outside after finishing their homework. Iris gives him her innocent, wide-eyed look, blinking rapidly and he sighs. “Fine, go.”

She kisses him on the cheek as Barry grins and gets up from his seat. “Thank you, Joe!”

He grabs his coat and rushes out of his lab, Iris right behind him. They laugh in excitement as they hurry out of the precinct.

\- : - : - : -  

Iris runs her hand up and down Barry’s arm as an act of comfort while he keeps the ice pack on the side of his head. “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“Iris, I’m fine.”

She frowns at him. They’re at the precinct to file a report causing them to miss the particle accelerator from being activated. She moves her hand from his arm to his hair. He cleaned up the blood but there’ll be a noticeable bruise on the side of his forehead for a while. “Just making sure you’re not in pain.”

Barry moves her hand to his cheek and looks at Iris with a soft expression. “I’m fine, Iris. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Her breath is caught in her throat as she looks in his eyes. The same look is in them again. Warmth and unease spread through and quickly leaves her. Iris pulls her hand away and scans the room for a distraction. “So who’s the new guy?”

“He’s a transfer from Keystone City,” Barry says. “Eddie Thawne.”

The name confirms it. Edward Richardson Thawne. She hoped it wasn’t him, but it’s the same man. “So that’s Detective Pretty Boy.”

Barry has a confused look on his face, and she rushes to explain. “That’s what my dad calls him. Says he keeps track of all his arrests.” Iris rolls her eyes.

“He sure is pretty though.”

She’s too caught up on how Eddie’s not going to look so pretty anymore once she’s interrogated him to notice the wounded expression on Barry’s face. Iris turns her gaze back to Barry. “I’m sorry that we didn’t get to see the particle accelerator get activated.”

“It’s alright,” He says quietly. “It wasn’t your fault your laptop bag got stolen.”

“Maybe we could watch the rest of the broadcast in your lab?” She offers.

“Aren’t you tired?”

“Not really,” she shakes her head. “Plus we’re supposed to hang out for the rest of the night, remember?”

“Ok,” he shrugs. “I need to lock up the lab afterward.”

Iris frowns at the wet floor of Barry’s lab. The lightning storm outside pounds heavily against the skylight. Maybe she can leave CCPD a generous donation to upgrade their roof maintenance. Barry turns on his computer to check the coverage on the particle accelerator while Iris checks her phone. Notifications on Superman’s latest battle pops up and she reminds herself to look through them all later and contact her connections in Metropolis so she can write her article on her blog.

She turns to Barry, about to ask if he wants to wait until the storm is over before heading home, but he’s staring intensely at his computer screen. Iris walks over and sees Linda Park reporting live from STAR Labs.

“Officials are now trying to shut down the particle accelerator, but so far, have been unable to regain control of the system-”

Suddenly, the computer shuts down. The sound of thunder brings their gaze up towards the windows where a bright outburst of light is coming from STAR Labs. Knots form in Iris’ stomach, something isn’t right. Then a shockwave of energy materializes, knocking out the lights as it travels through the city.

“The skylight.”

Barry moves from the computer to the chains to close the skylight. Iris walks over to help but pauses when the liquids in the beakers start to float. It reminds her of when the piece of alien metal that caused Catherine to collapse and give her powers had started to float away and disappear.

Barry’s frozen as well, transfixed at the sight. It’s like he’s seen it happen before. The knots in her stomach continue to increase and Iris tries to clear her mind. There’s a lightning storm outside and a shockwave from the particle accelerator was just released into the city and Barry’s standing in the puddle of water, holding an _iron metal_ chain.

She opens her mouth to call out his name but lets out a scream instead. A lightning bolt crashes through the skylight and strikes Barry in the chest, hurling him into the shelves causing chemicals to land on him. “BARRY!”

She rushes to his side, watching as a red bolt of lightning runs through his cheek before fading. She places two fingers near his carotid artery, brachial artery, radial artery. There’s no pulse.

“No, no, no. Not again.” Tears run down her face. “Barry, wake up. Please wake up. Somebody help! Somebody! Anybody! Eddie!”

\- : - : - : - 

They rush him to Central City Memorial. Immediately, the paramedics take over and Iris follows them. She tries to breathe but images of Catherine screaming and collapsing and Barry getting struck by lightning are coursing through her mind. They bring him to the emergency room with doctors everywhere. It seems like Barry isn’t the only one who got affected by the accident. Iris moves towards Barry, wanting to be next to him, _needing_ to be next to him.

“You can’t be in here,” a nurse says, pushing her out towards the door. Eddie’s pulling her out as well.

“I’m _family_ ,” Iris cries out. Her teary gaze focuses on where he is. He’s flatlining. “BARRY!”

“CLEAR!” 

\- : - : - : -

 Cold. It’s honestly so cold. Her body feels numb sitting in the chair, waiting for news on Barry. Eddie pulls Iris into a side-hug, rubbing his hand up and down her arm. She should interrogate him as to why he’s in Central City and not in Keystone City, but now is not the time. Everything around her is moving in such slow motion, the lights keep flickering in and out, she can’t hear anything that the doctors are saying as they pass by, and _why_ is it so goddamn cold in here?

When Joe arrives, he’s soaked and looking frantic and tense.

“What happened? Where’s Barry?”

Iris opens and closes her mouth a couple times, wanting to explain but can’t. She can’t speak. Eddie explains instead. Her father has a suspicious look in his eyes, probably because she’s learning on Eddie’s shoulder. It’s quickly gone when the doctor arrives. Iris stands up.

“Excuse me, do you know this young man?” He asks.

“Yes, yes we do. We’re his family,” Iris immediately says.

There’s a look of judgment in the doctor’s eyes as he looks at them and Iris hides her clenched fists behind her back.

“His name is Barry Allen, I’ve been his legal guardian until he was eighteen,” Joe told him. “Is he going to be alright?”

“We were able to stabilize Mr. Allen at the moment.” 

“But is he going to be alright?” Iris repeats her father’s words. The doctor hesitates before speaking.

_Barry got struck by lightning. He’s in a coma._

That’s practically been Iris’s catchphrase the first couple days when she goes to Jitters or Marlowe Research or CCU or the psychology clinic. Immediately afterward they give her a sympathetic look and she has to leave the room. Cause she doesn’t need their sympathy, all she needs is Barry to get better.

_“Mr. Allen was directly struck by a pre-eminent electrostatic discharge.”_

_“The electric current is affecting the neurons in his body. The damage makes it hard for him to maintain control of his body since his nerve branches to the spinal cord are impaired.”_

_“His body needs time to heal from all the damages he took in at such a fast rate.”_

Barry needs time to heal his body so he’s in a coma. Barry’s in a coma. Just like Catherine after Iris found her on the basement floor of the abandoned research facility she just bought junior year of uni, surrounded by debris and rubble. It’s why there’s a breathing tube inserted down his trachea to keep him alive and oxygenated. Cause without it Barry could die.

_“When he wakes up, there might be a chance that the damages in his nervous system are causing his higher mental functions to be in disarray so he might be a bit lethargic and bemused. There might be a chance of his personality being permanently altered.”_

Iris was shaking that night when she heard the news. Her tears kept flowing non-stop and at the corner of her eye, she saw Eddie’s mouth move. Was he giving her words of comfort? Was he asking if she’s alright? Cause no, she wasn't. She wouldn’t be alright until Barry wakes up. Cause he needs to. Cause Iris doesn’t know how she can go on without him.

It’s a struggle for Iris, trying to continue life without Barry’s presence. There are times when she’ll wait during her shift for his visit before remembering that he isn’t coming or when she pulls out her phone to text him something to realize he’s not going to see it.

It’s been a while since she’s felt warmth.


	2. The Coma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iris deals with Barry being in a coma, and it's not an easy transition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank greenemerald for being my first ever review for this story. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much!

The next time Iris sees Eddie is when she’s handing Captain Singh another case report. There’s been an increase in crimes after the accident, some unexplainable. Their only CSI is in a coma and they had to call Jasper Dolan, Barry’s mentor and former CSI, out of retirement to see if he can help. The CCPD don’t have the funds to hire another one. She offered her connections which Singh immediately accepted but wanted to pay her as well.

“Their reports have been well-written,” he complimented when he took the offer. “But we don’t know how long it’ll take for us to get a new CSI and I don’t want to have Joe coming on me about you getting tired from delivering samples and reports everywhere. I could pay you a bit for being the messenger.”

She doesn’t know how to feel about being considered a messenger, she’s more like a compass. Iris declined her share of the pay but said that the assistant of the executive director will take theirs. She wouldn’t really call herself Catherine’s assistant as she did help re-establish the facility and hire researchers and create programs and supervise when Catherine can’t, she’s the co-executive director but tells scientists and researchers that she’s a senior director instead.

She wanted reassurance that when Barry wakes up, _when_ he wakes up, that he still has a job as a CSI. Iris uses the rest of the money to pay for Barry’s apartment. His landowner has met her more than a dozen times and is willing to take her check when paying for Barry’s monthly rent. She doesn’t want him to wake up without a job or a home. Captain Singh agreed easily as if there was ever a doubt.

Most of the precinct is too busy with the odd crimes to visit Barry in the hospital, but they send their regards to Iris and Joe whenever they see them. Captain Singh visits sometimes to talk about a crime scene that he had missed and playfully talk about firing him. Joe would sometimes fall asleep while watching Barry and catch up on work. Felicity Smoak is there a couple times, but she mostly finds the blonde when she’s almost done with her visits.

Iris always seems to miss Eddie’s visits when he comes by. It’s not a surprise, he’s used to her timing and knowing when she would come through the doors anywhere. He senses her when she came into the precinct. His body stiffened and his gaze focused directly at her father as they talk. After handing Captain Singh the report, Iris walks over to them. She smirks as Eddie’s hands seem to clench, his eyes now looking for a way out.

“Hi Daddy,” Iris says, hugging her father.

He gives her a tight squeeze. “Hey, baby girl. What are you doing here?”

“I was giving Captain Singh back one of the reports that the external lab finished.”

“They’re sure working fast through those cases aren’t they?”

“They sure are.”

There’s a bit of amusement in Eddie’s eyes that quickly goes away when he sees the mischievous glint in hers. “I was wondering if you wanted any coffee from Jitters? I’m taking orders.”

“Just black for me. I’ve got a lot of work to do. And a cronut on the side,” her fathers says.

“Anything for you, Detective Thawne?”

“No, I’m good actually,” he declines.

“But you’ve been covering a lot of my father’s shifts, it’s the least I can do.”

He starts to decline again but Joe interrupts him. “Oh just get him something,” then points to his partner. “You deserve it.”

“Maybe he can come to Jitters with me,” Iris adds. “I have a class later anyways, he can just bring back the coffee here afterward.”

“That’s a good idea,” Joe says. He hands her a twenty dollar bill. “Get him anything he wants, I can cover his shift for a little bit.”

Eddie looks so defeated but Iris can’t help but smile brightly at her victory.

\- : - : - : -

“What are you doing here?”

They’re sitting at a table in front of Jitters. Iris has a medium Americano in her hands as Eddie takes a sip of his iced coffee. After his confrontation, he plans on ordering Joe’s large black coffee and cronut.

“The last time you were in Marlowe Research, you said that you were going undercover as a detective at the Keystone City Police Department,” Iris points out. “You said that the DEO assigned you there.”

DEO, Department of Extranormal Operations. A secret underground government organization similar to ARGUS, Advanced Research Group United Support. Director Amanda Waller and Director Steve Trevor are aware of each other’s existence, and they make sure not to interfere with the other’s organization. Although, it’s sometimes easy to recognize ARGUS agents based on their behavior and body position.

“Well, they transferred me,” Eddie shrugs.

“Did _you_ transfer yourself or did Steve?” Iris asks, mentioning their supervising officer that trained them both.

“Steve did when he got back from a trip to Themyscira with Diana.”

“How does a trip from Themyscira have to do with anything?”

“Cause according to one of the Amazons, something out of time was supposed to happen in Central City, something strong,” Eddie says.

“Something strong- Do you think they were referring to the particle accelerator explosion?”

“I don’t know, all I know is that it’s been months since I’ve transferred and that explosion is the first thing that has happened that could be described as _something strong_.”

What Eddie had just said didn’t sit well with Iris. If the accident is what the Amazons were referring to then that means that they knew for months that it was going to happen. That they knew for months that Barry was going to be in a coma. She takes her glasses off and plays with them a bit to help gather her thoughts. It’s been years since she’s worn her glasses out in public but she’s hardly been thinking about her appearance these days.

“So if the accident was what the Amazons were referring to then what now?” Iris asks.

“I don’t know.”

There’s a bit of silence before Eddie disrupts it by teasing her about not noticing him at the precinct for months. How he knew when she was coming into the building and him hiding and how he wasn’t even aware. Iris laughs and relaxes, resting her head on his shoulder for a bit. It’s nice to have a friend around.

\- : - : - : -

“Iris, Dr. Brynes is waiting for you in her office. Her next patient is coming in a couple minutes,” an intern tells Iris once she walks into the psychological clinic the next week.

She thanks him with a smile that hides her dread to sit through sessions. It’s been a wonderful experience so far, getting to learn people’s situations and learn their life while providing them with advice and making goals on how to help them feel better. It doesn’t help though when there are patients who have family members or friends who are either missing or in a coma as well. It shakes her, their teary eyes and loud sobs as if it’ll return or wake up their loved ones. It brings up Barry’s current situation and there isn’t much she can do as she waits by his side in the hospital and she hates the feeling of being helpless. She hopes that Barry can sense her presence and know that she is by his side.

Her supervisor Rebecca Crosby at the clinic had noticed and offered to slow down her training course and providing her with free sessions to come and visit her. Iris agrees for a couple of days before going back to training at the initial speed, not wanting to fall behind with her practicum supervisor and consultant group. She declines her sessions as well but Ms. Crosby lets her know that her door is always open.

It’s hard not to find some satisfaction in the discovery that Harrison Wells is paraplegic and is stuck in a wheelchair. It’s because of his decision to activate the particle accelerator during a lightning storm that Barry’s in a coma and Detective Chyre had died and other people have gone missing.

There are times when she wants to give up, to say _screw the world!_ and to stay by Barry’s side until he wakes up. She remembers the one time she did that. She screamed at the nurses as they tried to pull her away from his bed. Her father had to convince them to allow her to stay overnight which lead to the entire weekend. She slept in a chair with her head resting on his bed, her hand sometimes held his or stroke the Lichtenberg figures on his arms. Despite the weird position, it’s the best sleep she had in weeks.

It’s the nights that are the worse. It’s hard to sleep in her room, there’s always a nightmare, waking up with beads of sweat running down her face. Images of him going through cardiac arrest, the lights going out in the hospital, then dying plays through her mind. It happens too many times to count.

Besides Barry’s hospital bed, his room is the only other place Iris can get a good night sleep. While he may have his own apartment, he would sometimes stay a night or two at home every once in a while, leaving some clothes behind cause he would forget sometimes. Surrounded by his childhood possessions brought her back to when they were kids, growing up side by side, always there for one another. A constant figure in one another’s life. Now it’s not so constant.

She can’t help it, sleeping on his bed, wearing his clothes. It has his scent, the smell of sweat and chemicals and his father’s aftershave. The aftershave that Iris got him for Christmas during his senior year of high school. He had been stressed about getting accepted into universities and tried to apply to as many as possible. He hid his acceptance letter to Notre Dame by throwing it in the garbage when it arrived, but Iris found it and showed the letter to Joe.

“It’s too expensive,” Barry told them. “You guys don’t have to pay for this, not after everything you guys have done for me.”

Joe and Iris shook their heads. Barry deserved to go to Notre Dame, he deserved so much after everything he’s been through. She created a chart on the cost of everything, breaking up the amounts of money he needed to pay monthly and how to reach it without overworking themselves. The entire junior year, Iris worked extra shifts at the skating rink and got a second job at the gymnastics center (which Joe nor Barry needed to know about) to help pay.

It was hard finding a good Christmas gift for Barry that year due to trying to save money for his tuition, so she decided to visit Henry at Iron Heights for advice. Iris always made sure that whenever she visits to bring pictures of what Barry has been doing despite Barry’s visits and verbal descriptions. Henry enjoyed seeing a picture of Barry in action doing something he’s passionate about. There wasn’t a lot of ideas to think of, but she decided to go sentimental and asked Henry for something that he usually got that would help Barry remember him while at uni. He told her what his usual aftershave was and asked for a picture of Barry’s reaction.

“Thank you Iris.” _Snap!_

She will never forget the look on his face when Barry opened his present. After receiving his charm bracelet with a pearl and a heart charm included, Iris was nervous that her present wouldn’t compare. Her hands felt clammy as she held her camera in her hands. He looked confused, switching between looking at the camera and the present. He debated opening it, thinking it was a prank. It took a couple minutes to convince him that it wasn’t and _Barry, hurry it up! Nothing’s going to pop out in front of you!_

He thanked her twice. Once when he first opened the present and saw the aftershave and again when Iris told him to smell the scent. It was during the second thanks to that she took a picture.

Barry froze at first after getting a hit of the scent, then tears started to fall. He chuckled a bit, looking at the bottle for a moment before looking up at Iris. her breath caught in her throat before coming out staggered, her heart beating fast. His smile was _radiant_ , eyes full of gratitude and love despite the tears falling. She quickly took a picture of him before rushing to give him a hug, _you’re welcome_ whispered near his neck, then creating distance to wipe his tears away.

“What was the picture for?” he asked, faces still close to one another.

“Henry wanted a picture of your reaction, Bear.”

“I probably look weird in that picture crying,” he chuckled.

Iris looked at the picture from behind him, her arms wrapped behind his neck and could only describe it as beautiful, but she wasn’t about to tell him that.

“It’s blurry,” she bluntly lied to him. “We need to take it again.”

This time, Joe took the picture of them with the bottle of aftershave in Barry’s hands. She showed Henry both pictures the next time she saw him. He chuckled, giving off a similar radiant smile as he said _thank you_. She was glad to give both Allens a happy Christmas.

\- : - : - : -

“Okay, that’s enough training for today,” Douglas calls out.

“But-”

He glares sternly before Iris could refute.

“We. Are. Done.”

Well isn’t he in a good mood. Maybe he and Catherine are having a fight, Iris thinks as she takes her boxing gloves away. Although, it’s not like she would know anyways. It’s been a slow process of adjusting to life without Barry and everyone at Marlowe Research could tell that something was wrong. After telling them that Barry was in a coma, they started to treat her as if she was fragile. Douglas runs training sessions softly and short (though not as short as today), Max doesn’t visit her lab anymore, and Catherine’s hugs are no longer tight.

As much as Iris wants them to act normal around her, it has been a struggle getting back on her feet. She hasn’t posted anything on _The Pyxis_ in two months. The psychology and journalism group chats that she’s a part of are still empty from her usual comments on recent psychology journals and debates on which newspaper is the best in each city. It’s hard to ever imagine a time when she and Catherine hardly spoke, they were roommates at Northwestern University for all of their undergraduate years. She remembers the day when Catherine facetimed her from Janelia City while she was in their apartment near Northwestern University.

“I know that the research facility looks bad now-”

“Because it’s abandoned,” Iris interrupted.

“-But I promise that after everything is cleaned up and all the equipment has arrived and been installed, that it’s going to look a-ma-zing.” Catherine declared.

It’s the summer before their senior year, and Catherine was facetiming her the tour of the abandoned research facility that she had recently bought. It apparently got hit during a battle between Superman and Brainiac, and no one bothered to fix the place so she was able to buy the place at a cheap (well cheap for a rich girl) price. The inner linings of the building looked like a hazardous mess. Broken glass everywhere with only a few still standing as the windows, doors, and walls. Within the main labs, some equipment appeared fixable while others were broken and charred. It was quite a big research lab as Catherine showed her to the other labs, offices, meeting rooms, and more.

“For now, I plan on cleaning up the first floor and leave the second and third floor for later,” she explained. “I’ll probably hire a cleaning crew to pick up the rubble then replace all the glass with one-way mirror.”

She moved to a large room with computers everywhere, her phone focused on the ground with strands of her brown hair on the corner while she moved bricks and pieces of trash aside. She mumbled about possibly replacing the tiling on the floors before finding a tiny shard of shiny silver metal that didn’t appear damaged. Iris watched as she reached to grab it and gasped in horror as Catherine scream once in contact with the metal. The focus on the screen fell to the floor, indicating that she collapsed but Iris was able to see the metal float and shimmer a bit before disappearing.

She froze in shock for a couple seconds before springing out of bed. Classes started in a couple weeks, her father was working, and Barry was at his internship at CCPD, so she didn’t have to worry about calling anyone as she changed out of her pajamas and bought the ticket for the next flight to Janelia City. It was a four-hour flight, the earliest plane leaving in two hours and it takes an hour to get to the airport. An overnight bag quickly packed, she rushed towards her car, momentarily forgetting the amount it would cost her for leaving her car at the airport parking lot for who knows how many days. Catherine’s phone died and the image of the rubble in the room dropped to a black screen thirty minutes before her flight left. Her fingertips lightly tapped on her thighs as well as her right foot on the floor as she waited.

By the time Iris landed in Janelia City, it was around the time she would send Barry a good night text. She had her messages pulled up, their last conversation about how he was currently reading through old file cases and the forensic reports with Mr. Dolan. Her hands were shaking, unable to type out anything with the thoughts of Catherine’s well-being stuck in her head. She canceled all her other plans and called her boss that she was unable to work the rest of her summer shifts as a behavioral technician at the clinic near campus, that she would try to make them up later. Half an hour later on the bus to reach the Walmart nearest to the research facility, she watched as Barry’s text bubbles appeared. **Good night, Iris. Sweet dreams.**

She slowly released a breath of air, trying to calm herself down before typing out her usual **Good night, Bear. Miss you!** message. She desperately wanted to call Barry right now, to ask for advice on what to do and how to help Catherine once she got there. It wasn’t fun feeling helpless, she didn’t know what she was supposed to do once she arrived at the research facility and find her unconscious.

Catherine was unconscious, _unconscious_ , Iris told herself. Not dead, she wasn’t dead.

Barry would know what to do, but she knew that he had to read and summarize a specific amount of old file cases and forensic reports due in a couple of days and he was halfway done. Iris didn’t want to stress him with her problems. Once dropped at Walmart, she bought a first aid kit and walked the ten minutes to the research facility while looking online on how to treat wounds. The amount of rubble that surrounded her during facetime left no doubt that Catherine had gotten scraped or injured as she collapsed, plus who knew how the metal affected her body. The bacteria and dirt from the rubble and air could cause an infection. The fact that just by touching it caused her to scream told her that it was not an ordinary piece of metal. When Iris saw her parked car, she sprinted inside trying to remember the interior details to find the path she took to the large room. A relieved sigh came out loudly once she found her.

Catherine only had a couple scrapes and bruises around her arms and legs with a big red wound on the side of her forehead. Having watched the instruction videos on how to wrap wounds a couple times, she cleaned up the dry blood with the alcoholic pads, placing band-aids on the scraps but wrapping a gauze around the side of her forehead. Catherine was fully knocked out, her breath hardly felt. Iris slowly pulled her up from the ground, wrapping one arm around her body and allowing the brunette to lean on her. It was a bit hard dragging her up the stairs but it was doable. It also told her that she needed to start working out again. Once she found Catherine’s car keys, she gently set her in the passenger seat and drove to the nearest hospital.

She was out for three days before waking up. The doctors found nothing wrong with her, no side effects, no problems, nothing. They asked what happened and the idea of telling them that Catherine touched a piece of metal that shocked her then disappeared seemed too far-fetched to believe and would most likely conclude with them thinking she was crazy. So Iris was stuck with telling them that she overexerted herself lifting some rubble in the abandoned research facility that she had just bought. The doctor seemed to believe her. During those three days before Catherine woke up, Iris informed her parents, kept her company during visiting hours, and tried to clean up some of the mess in the research facility. Her parents allowed her to stay in their home, their three-story mansion home.

“We appreciate the fact that you flew all the way here to take care of Catherine,” her father Geoffrey said.

“It wasn’t a problem. She’s my friend and roommate, of course, I would come to help.”

“Catherine has always struggled with making friends that she could be close with. We’re glad that she has made such a great friend while in university.”

The night before Catherine woke up, Iris was on a Skype call with Barry. He talked about the endless amount of paperwork he had to stare at for hours and the lack of sleep he got just to finish his final internship work. She joked about how he shouldn’t have procrastinated and felt a bit of warmth talking to him, momentarily forgetting about her problems. It didn’t last long as he noticed the difference in the background and could tell that she wasn’t in her apartment.

“Iris, where are you?”

She stayed silent for a moment. He finished his assignment so it wasn’t like she was going to distract him from anything. But what if he wanted to fly over to make sure she was ok? It wasn’t something out of the ordinary for them. During his junior year, she took a train during her spring break to calm him down after he overloaded himself and last year when he had graduated early, he had visited her to help study for finals. But Iris knew that after his internship ended that he would be called in for a proper interview for a job as a CSI at the CCPD. How long does it usually take for the place you got your internship to review your work and call for a job interview? She knew that Captain Singh liked Barry despite his lateness sometimes. It shouldn’t take that long, right? So if Barry did decide to leave to visit her, he could miss his chance of an interview and someone else might get the spot.

“Iris,” he called out form the screen. “Come on Flower, tell me what’s going on.”

The thought of not telling Barry what was going on sickened her, so she told him everything. _Almost_ everything. She planned on telling him how a piece of metal had shocked her, causing Catherine to collapse before it shimmered and disappeared. She knew that he would believe her, but there wasn’t much to go on after that. After his mother died, Barry grew up chasing the impossible, and a shimmering and disappearing metal that shocks people definitely fits the bill. But Iris didn’t want to give him false hope, she wanted to figure out what happened before she led him on a crazy adventure that leads to no clues.

“Do you want me to come and keep you company?” Barry asked, just like she expected him to. “Where are you staying? I’ll try to get there as soon as I can.”

“Barry, no,” Iris refused. “It’s fine. I’m fine. Mr. and Mrs. Marlowe allowed me to stay in one of their guest rooms for the time being. The doctors said that Catherine should be waking up soon. Besides, you’re waiting for that call and can’t afford to be distracted nor be out of the city right now.”

“How long are you staying there for? Aren’t your classes starting soon? You shouldn’t be skipping even if it’s only the first day of class.”

“I’m planning on heading back a couple days before school starts, so it should be fine. Just please don’t tell my dad,” she asked.

“Joe doesn’t know that you’re in Janelia City?”

“He’s at work, and Catherine really had me worried when she facetimed me.” Iris looked down at the keyboard. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. The thought of her unconscious in an abandoned building scared me.”

“Hey Iris, it’s fine. I’m glad that you told me but you should tell Joe what’s going on.”

“I don’t want to worry him. Barry, it’s fine. Nothing’s going to happen to me here.”

The next morning, Amanda and Geoffrey informed her that Catherine was awake, and they drove to the hospital after breakfast. Her green eyes lit up at the sight of her parents but grew more excited once they landed on Iris. She greeted her parents, but once she walked over to her bed Catherine went to give her a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re here! I didn’t expect you to be.”

Her heart broke a bit when she heard her speak. The thought that she didn’t expect her to come and see her after watching her fall made Iris think about how she said she didn’t have any real friends.

“ _You’re like my first real friend, Iris._ ” Catherine had said to her once.

Iris wrapped her arms around her. “Of course I would be here. Someone had to come find you and get you to the hospital.”

“That was you?” She looked close to crying.

“Yes, but why are you crying? Are you okay? Do we need to get the nurse? Or the doctor?” Iris asked. She thought she saw a glint of gold sparkles in her eyes.

Catherine shook her head. “I’m fine. I just- I thought that maybe you called my parents to tell them what happened and where to find me. I didn’t expect that you would come all the way here to get me and make sure that I was okay.”

If Iris wasn’t in such a worried state that day, she probably would’ve just done that but the thought didn’t register in her mind. All she could think about was seeing for herself that she was okay.

“I’ll always be here for you,” she told her.

That statement continued to be true. A week before classes started, they met Douglas when he tried to rob them with a gun pointed at Iris. The confrontation scared and angered Catherine enough to activate her powers and nearly blasted him with an energy bolt. They ended up going to the research facility with Douglas demanding to know what just happened.

“This is the first time anything like this happened to me.”

They were in one of the few conference rooms that was almost fully furnished. Douglas and Catherine weren’t getting along well so the look that he had when she said that she didn’t know what was going on had Iris to intervene.

“Catherine, have you been feeling anything weird since you woke up?” Iris asked her.

She shrugged, “Not really. I mean, I’ve been feeling on edge lately, but I don’t know how that will help.”

Iris tried to remember the questions that Barry’s psychiatrists have asked him during the sessions Barry insisted that she sit in with him.  “What do you remember from the accident?”

“I remember trying to push some of the rubble away from the floor to see if it needed replacing. Then I saw a shiny piece of metal and tried to pick it up.” She paused and frowned in concentration. “But when I touched it, I just- It felt like electricity, wait no… no not electricity, it felt like energy ran through my body. It shocked me and everything went black.”

Iris felt Douglas’ shocked form from behind her but ignored him.

“Do you feel scared or nervous when you go back to the place where it occurred?” Catherine shook her head no.

“Do you feel any negative expectations on yourself, or others and the world?” Another shake of her head.

“Have you been having any recurring or distressing dreams that are related to the accident?” Catherine didn’t answer, looking a bit hesitant. Iris jumped toward the opportunity.

“When you dream, do you sometimes go back to the accident? Is the dream the same as what happened? Did anything change?”

Pushing rubble away to find a red hood man give you powers instead of a rock was a big change. So was being taken to another planet. That night they spent the rest of their time figuring out the rest of Catherine’s abilities and forming a bond with one another.

“You can’t tell anyone about this,” Catherine had told Douglas once morning arrived.

He looked at her incredulously, “Even if I did, who would believe me?”

Some bonds took longer to form than others, but when they did it lead to other things.

\- : - : - : -

It’s the day after Valentine’s Day when Iris stops her constant worrying and weeping. It’s to the point where she’s constantly busy. The perfect student, the perfect intern, the perfect writer, the perfect everything. It’s constant lenses and perfectly styled hair and on point makeup and clothes with a bright smile. It’s being on top of assignments and work and gaining the necessary amount of a social life before it’s off to something else. Midterms are coming up and with a fake smile on her face, she’s always busy.

Iris’ emergency furlough application gets approved two weeks later and she tries to forget how it took Iron Heights two months and three weeks to get the paperwork accepted. Henry greets her with a smile, better than the devastating look he had when she told him the news. He’s crying by his bed and Iris steps outside to give them some space. An hour goes by before the lights go out and Henry bursts open the door yelling, “Someone help! My son’s having a seizure!”

She drags him away from the room because he sees the needles and equipment the doctors bring and says “Don’t hurt my son with those things!”

“Barry is strong, he can handle the needles and machines.” Iris doesn’t know where she’s reassuring Henry or herself. “He’s going to wake up and he’ll be fine. He’s strong, he won’t leave us behind.

He pulls her into a warm hug, _thank you sweetheart_. It’s like a hug from a second father. She treats him out to lunch before heading back to Iron Heights. There’s a glint expression in his eyes that she can’t read when she tells him about sending in another furlough application so he can visit Barry again. “While I appreciate everything you’ve done Iris, please don’t forget to take care of yourself.”

She finally listens to his advice on a Monday when Eddie asks her a question. “Do you want him to see you like this if he wakes up?”

 _When_ , she wants to say, not _if._ It’s been three months and instead of constantly worrying, it’s to the point where she’s constantly busy. She’s busy with either doing work or taking care of everyone else that she doesn’t realize she’s wearing herself out. Visits to Barry’s bed are limited and sometimes she doesn’t know what to say so she reads to him the latest subscriptions of Scientific American that he got in the mail. She keeps herself busy in order to avoid having time to cry. What is she doing?

_“What brings you here?”_

Mrs. Crosby sits in front of her radiating trust. It’s a struggle to get the words out, not used to showing too much vulnerability. But she’s tired. She’s tired of waking up every day and attend classes and work at Jitters and visit the precinct and analyze data and write reports and help out at Marlowe Research (and figure out why Cobalt Blue has disappeared) and sit during sessions at the clinic. She’s up all day and nightmares keep her up all night.

_“We all face problems and challenges. What are you trying to do to solve the problem?”_

She doesn’t want to say that she’s given up on Barry because that’s something she’ll never do. She doesn’t know what she’s given up on, but it needs to stop. When Barry wakes up, no matter how long it takes, Iris wants to be smiling at him looking her best rather than her worst. She’s ready to be strong again.

On March 14, Iris spends the morning reading the present she had for Barry, lunch with Henry who smiles at her with _glad you’re taking care of yourself_ , the afternoon by Barry’s sides, and dinner with her father. She hopes that he wakes up soon so that he can see the present she got him. It’s a signed research article that discussed the possibilities of the supernatural from her Uncle Ira in Amnesty Bay. She pretended to be a student at the university he teaches at, easily finding a seat during his lecture. He looks well, Iris noted. Less scatterbrained and more of the genius that her maternal family told her about, she understood most of his words and wished she was brave enough to tell him who she really was. But that was impossible.

\- : - : - : -

It’s three exams, four essays, and two projects with one appearance of Cobalt Blue in Keystone City does Iris meet another impossible. Emma Kole is her first unsupervised client who went missing after the particle accelerator but was found a few weeks later. After she refused to tell anyone what happened to her, Mr. and Mrs. Kole decided to send their 16-year-old daughter to help. The first couple sessions involved Emma providing vague answers and switching the topic but eventually, Iris was able to get her to relax and trust her until one day.

“I-I don’t what to do, it just started happening once I woke up and-and I don’t want to tell my parents,” she cries out.

Emma has powers, specifically the power to generate crystals. She spins a crystal bouquet of irises during the session as proof. Tears run down her cheeks, body shaking as she hands over the crystal bouquet. She’s scared, Iris can immediately tell as if expecting her to give a look of disgust or fright and call the police. She’s in luck that Iris has a bit of experience with the impossible.

“I can help you,” Iris told her. The sound of relief that Emma lets out brings a smile to her face and a small flame warms insider her after months of numbness.

“Now I’m going to need you to tell me what happened.”

It turns out that it was Emma’s Sweet Sixteen the day of the explosion. It was a family tradition to be gifted diamond accessories on one’s sixteenth birthday. After the party, she and her boyfriend went for a midnight walk while he gave her his birthday present. _I… I took some alcohol from my parents’ cupboards, and we got drunk and then… and then one thing leads to another._ When the explosion occurred, diamonds were in physical contact with her body, it seemed to have been absorbed into her skin allowing her to generate crystals while she and her boyfriend celebrated her birthday in the woods. Emma was trapped inside a crystal shell for weeks before she woke up and cracked it open. Everything she touched immediately turned to crystal, and she started to wear silk gloves ever since.

“I’m learning what my powers do, but I still don’t know how to _control_ it,” she emphasizes what she needs help in.

After Iris meets with the rest of her clients and Emma is given permission, they teleport to Marlowe Research. Her shocked expression reminds her of max’s when he first teleported with her. Everyone’s quick to access the situation: Max creates a spreadsheet, Douglas asks her questions, Catherine and Iris discuss different sets of gloves for Emma to use that can check her vitals as she learns how to control them. _It’s going to be a long process_ , they warn her but Emma accepts. After getting the basic information and training plans laid out, Iris drives Emma home.

With the main problem identified, Iris’ sessions with Emma now involve her practicing and going over control at home. _Breathe. Stay calm. Have something to focus your mind on._ Then there are scheduled days where they teleport to Marlowe Research for proper training and run tests. She’s grateful, they could tell. But at that moment, they weren’t aware of how far her gratitude went.

\- : - : - : -

It’s been five months and they want to turn him off. It’s after a training session with Douglas and Iris is sweating and in pain everywhere. But when she arrives at the hospital, her body feels frozen.

“Why?” Iris demands. “He’s still breathing, his heart rate is steady. You said he was stable. He’s still alive!”

“That’s true,” the doctor says. “But it’s been five months and no progress has been made. He still needs to use an intubation tube to breathe and despite that, he continues to flatline and have random seizures. His heart has stopped 48 times already, we think it’s best to turn off the ventilators.”

Iris can’t breathe. She honest to goodness cannot breathe. She wants to yell at them again, to fight back and say no and that Barry _will_ wake up and that there’s no way they’re turning him off. But she can’t breathe and tears are making her vision blurry (lowkey reminding herself to visit her optometrist and update her prescription). Iris turns to her dad, expecting him to reject as well when suddenly Barry’s body jerks from his bed. He’s seizing again. “Oh my god, oh my god.”

“Get the nurses,” the doctor says.

“You said he was stable!” Iris cries out. “Barry! Oh my god.”

Someone’s pushing her out of the room again, and she wants to fight back but her training session left her sore. She’s helpless against their grip as Iris’ eyes are glued on Barry.

“How can he be seizing, he has no heart rhythm.”

“Starting compressions.”

It’s too much. It’s all too much and Iris runs. She runs out of the hospital and drives home. She rushes to his room, hoping to find comfort but images of him dying and seizing flash in front of her eyes, and Iris takes a step back. No, she can’t deal with any of this right now. She needs to get out of there, away from the pain, away from seeing Barry suffer. Once again, she’s rushing out of the house.

Eddie isn't surprised to see her at the front door of his apartment. Almost as if he expected it to happen sooner or later. Iris is so close to breaking down and she can tell that he sees it by how he brings her into a tight hug.

“Let me take care of you.”

\- : - : - : -

The next day, Iris finds out that Dr. Harrison Wells wants to bring Barry to STAR Labs to help him. Her initial response is to refuse due to distrust and that it’s _his_ fault that Barry is in a coma in the first place. She stays quiet though, listening to his reasoning and his wheelchair makes her remember that he was affected as well. It might’ve been his fault, but it was an accident. His reputation has gone down the drain, most of his employees quit on him, and he’s trying to make up for his mistakes. So in the end, Iris gives a small smile and agrees with her father’s plan with Dr. Wells.

Dr. Caitlin Snow and Francisco Ramon seem to be the only two people who still believe in and works with Dr. Wells. Iris sees them briefly when the nurses move Barry to the STAR Labs van and they act like opposites. Dr. Snow’s pretty with caramel brown hair and stern brown eyes, her voice sharp as she directs the nurses to the van. Francisco (“Please don’t call me that, just call me Cisco”) is adorably handsome with gorgeous black hair and brown eyes. He’s funny and outspoken and “Don’t worry Detective West, Ms. West, once we get Barry settled in, we’ll give him the best treatment, the best that STAR Labs could offer.”

Iris is tempted to say  _with what money?_ But doesn’t want to see Cisco’s happy expression drop because of her. Before they leave, she tells Dr. Wells to call them when they are done setting Barry in. He promises but Iris doesn’t trust him, especially when there’s an amused, sly edge on his smile like he knows something she doesn’t.

For two nights, Iris stays with Eddie. She tells Joe that she can’t sleep in the house at the moment and isn’t surprised when he grumbles out _just be back in the morning_. He’s back to drinking again and it makes Iris miss Barry more than ever because he’s the reason why they became a family again since her mother died.

Eddie became her distractor, he visits Jitters more, only ordering an iced coffee, and is there to greet her at the precinct when she delivers her reports. Occasionally, he’ll accompany her to Marlowe Research but not all the time cause _I really don’t need to see those lovebirds together, Iris._ He offers his bed while he takes the couch, and she accepts. Barry’s sweats feel like an embrace and his scent keeps her warm, but Iris is frigid on Eddie’s bed. It’s too firm, the pillows too big and the comforter too heavy. It’s not like the mattresses she and Barry have at home nor the memory foam one that Barry has at his apartment. It takes a while for her to rearrange herself to a position where she can sleep.

_Why didn’t you push him away?_

It was the night of the accident. Iris sees herself and Barry looking at the computer screen then at the window where the shockwave could be seen. “The skylight.”

_Why were you walking so slow to help him?_

Barry had rushed to close the skylight while it seemed like there was hardly any movement in hers. She practically took four steps before standing frozen, watching the liquids float from the beakers. She was too busy gazing to notice that Barry had stopped and had done the same thing.

_Why did you scream his name to warn him? Why not push him out of the way?_

Her head moved from the beakers to Barry. It only took her a couple seconds to assess the situation and her eyes widened when she realized that he was holding onto _iron metal_ chains. _There wasn’t any time_ sounded like a stupid excuse. She watched as her mouth started to say Barry’s name before the lightning crashed through. Iris screamed the moment it hits his chest. She’s frozen when he’s hurled towards the shelves, beakers falling on him.

_Why didn’t you push him out of the way?_

Iris tried to wake him up. She really did. She called out his name, lightly patted his face to see if it’ll wake him up. He didn’t have a pulse. He didn’t have a pulse and it scared her. She screamed out for help.

_Why didn’t you help him?_

He had a seizure, his arms and legs jerked around as he shook and moved from the bed. Iris had to be removed from the room everything it happened, all 48 times. She didn’t help, all she could do was scream, yell, beg, plead to the doctors to save him, to wake Barry up.

There were moments when the lights flickered in and out but Barry’s heart rate monitor still said that he was flatlining. She could hear it, even if she was outside of the room. The doctor would come out with a sorry expression, and Iris is freezing again. “I’m sorry, he’s dead.”

There were moments when the doctor would call them to say that he had woken up. She’d rush from wherever she was and rush to the hospital. A grin would be on her face and she’d hug Barry and never let him go. She’d catch him up on everything he missed, make it a plan to watch all the movies and listen to the best music that he missed out on. Her hands push hard against the door of his room, and she stops in her tracks. His gaze would be on her, his green eyes that usually looked at her with content and happiness had a look of confusion and suspicion. “Do I know you?” Sometimes he would glare at her, giving Iris a look full of hatred that freezes her in place. “Why didn’t you push me away?”

Metal objects always did affect compasses.

Eddie has to wake her up whenever she has nightmares. He usually pulls her into a hug and moves in a soothing pattern as he runs his hands down her back. He lets her soak his shirt with tears until she’s done crying. He doesn’t ask what happened, he doesn’t need to. Sometimes he leads her to the kitchen and heats up some water. “Let me help you relax.”

\- : - : - : -

Iris walks into STAR Labs, a container with 3 cups of coffee in one hand and her STAR Labs access card in the other. She stops by the washroom to check her makeup, plasters a smile on her face, and keeps her voice upbeat and steady before walking into the cortex. Dr. Snow says a quiet _thank you_ when Iris hands her the vanilla latte. Cisco’s face lights up with an _“Iris, you’re the best”_ when he takes his caramel chocolate cappuccino. Dr. Wells gives a polite nod and a soft thanks when she places his cafe macchiato on the desk next to him.

Their med bay is in the room next to the cortex and it’s easy to tell that it’s recently made. It’s not as high-functional and furnished as the one in Marlowe Research, but it’s alright. There’s fewer wires and tubes attached to Barry which worries and relieves her. But he looks better and that’s all that matters.

She just came from delivering Captain Singh another report and couldn’t help but go up to Barry’s lab. She’s avoided the place for about five months now. They cleaned up the mess, apparently hiring a new janitor, empty beakers now filled the shelves. It feels empty without Barry’s nervous energy. There’s a picture on his desk, just the two of them. It was after an exam that she was nervous for and Barry helped her prepare, also treating her afterward and a waiter took the picture.

Iris pulls it from her bag and places it on the stand next to his desk. There isn’t much that she can do besides hold his hand and talk. Everyone’s nice enough to give us some privacy when she visits around five in the evening and stays for an hour or two. She’s been busy lately. Finals week is coming up and she needs to study, then wait one more year before she can graduate. Hopefully, he’ll be awake to see her walk across the stage again.

She’s noticed some things that she was too emotional to recognize before as the weeks go by while he stays at STAR Labs. He’s not losing any muscle mass. The inactivity of voluntary movement should cause muscle atrophy and his body should feel flaccid. It’s not, it feels firm and solid when Iris leans to wrap her arms around him or to rest her head on his chest or lap. Her fingers gently stroke his arm, the arm that should have Lichtenberg figures on it, tracing the pattern that she’s done so many times. Barry’s a pale person, which makes him stand out whenever relatives decide to visit, so the Lichtenberg figures should have faded into a light scar. It’s completely healed, no sign of them anywhere.

Dr. Snow ignores Iris when she comes to check up on Barry, reading his vitals on a monitor, recording them down on a table before quickly moving towards the door. “Is he alright?”

She stops. “Barry is doing well. His vitals are stable, no seizures have occurred for the past couple weeks. No abnormalities have been found. You just need to wait for him to wake up.” Her voice is stern.

Did she notice them? He had figures on his arm when he was moved to the lab. Did they check his body mass? Felt the pressure of his body to check on his muscle strength? She’s listened to them talk about Barry’s weekly progression (well, lack of) and the reports on his condition and the new tests they plan on running soon. What kind of tests did they put him through?

Her hand reaches to hold Barry’s. “It’s so cold here.”

The bioengineer near the door agrees, her voice softer. “It’s freezing.”


	3. The Awakening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iris deals with metahumans. Eddie is there to comfort her. Iris gets to know the STAR Labs team. Barry wakes up.

For the past month, Iris has been forced to hand over the patients she’s had since the beginning of her internship for new ones that demanded her upon recommendation. Emma Kole’s recommendation. Throughout the couple weeks into Emma’s training, she’s never mentioned letting other people know she’s been getting help.

“Why shouldn’t I tell others? There’s some just as confused and scared as I was when I first woke up,” Emma shrugged when confronted.

It wasn’t like they call all at once. Slowly, week by week, one patient moved to another therapist and a new patient was given to her. People from different ranges across Central City became her patients, having secretly heard about the therapist who could help them understand their abilities. Besides knowing Emma or knowing someone who knows Emma, there’s no connection as to why these people were given abilities and it’s started to frustrate Iris. It frustrates the rest of Team Lady Faith as well due to the number of people who needs their help when Marlowe Research is supposed to have a _hidden_ secret base. While it’s exhilarating and honoring that they trust her enough to see their powers, Iris can’t keep bringing them into Marlowe Research. Bringing in more people with superpowers means letting more know Catherine’s secret which isn’t something the heiress is willing to spill.

The situation was settled two weeks after Barry has been transferred to STAR Labs. Catherine bought the abandoned confectionary factory near downtown Central City, and it took a while to clear it out and properly furnish the first couple of floors with the necessary technology. Despite having a lab in Marlowe Research, a second was created on the first floor of the abandoned factory for Iris, serving also as her office. The medbay is on the second floor, more high-functional and furnished compared to the one at STAR Labs.

It serves as the CC Operation Base for Team LF but mostly for the use of Iris and Max. It took a while for the constant increase in patients to die down to a stop as they didn’t need to go to the clinic anymore. A short session meeting to get the basic idea of who they are and what abilities they have, then she gives them a card with a date and location on where and when to meet. Videos were recorded, tests were taken, and questions were asked for fill out Max’s spreadsheet which he now calls _The Metahuman Database_ (“They’re humans with mutant abilities, therefore, metahumans. Get it?” “Yes, Max, we get it.”)

Rachel Mills is an ex-military woman 4 years older than Iris who has the gift of teleportation. One April night in her CCOB lab, Iris helps her figure out her teleportation range and how it is activated. Somehow, they start to discuss the mayoral campaign going on in Starling City.

“Sebastian Blood or Moira Queen?” Rachel asks.

Iris intakes a breath. “Ooh, hard to say. Wasn’t Queen on trial for being involved in the Undertaking which resulted in 503 deaths from the Glades?”

“But she was found not guilty,” Rachel points out.

“But the prosecutor had strong points that you can’t deny,” Iris says. “Blood is quite popular with the public, but his policies will make him a target for the corporations there.”

She’s in the motion of placing a band-aid on Rachel’s arm after drawing blood when she says. “She’s supposed to have given a speech tonight, I wish we could be where she is right now.”

The next moment, both women land to the ground in the middle of the woods. “What?”

“It seems that you’re able to teleport subconsciously based on your emotions and desires,” is the first thing Iris comments about.

“But why are we in the middle of the woods?” Rachel asks.

She shrugs, “You wanted to be where Moira Queen was. She’s here somewhere.”

“In the woods?” Rachel mutters in question as she starts to walk.

“Wait, where are you going? We should be trying to teleport back to Central City.”

“But aren’t you curious on why Moira Queen, after she supposedly had a speech, is currently in the woods?” Rachel says as she continues to walk.

Iris sighs, muttering about how she has finals next week but follows Rachel. They wander randomly until they start to hear voices. Someone’s crying while another is calling a name _Oliver, Oliver_. They rush towards the sound but quickly hide within the trees when they see a man holding a gun between Moira and Thea Queen with Oliver Queen tied up on the ground.

“Who is that?” Rachel whispers.

“Slade Wilson.”

 

\- : - : - : -

 

Iris wished she had done something. She should’ve stepped in and stopped it, stopped Moira Queen from being murdered. But she couldn’t. Rachel grew scared and subconsciously sent them back to the lab within seconds after Moira was stabbed with a sword. It took a while for Iris to calm her down, clearly traumatized and gotten flashbacks from her military period, but she was able to get her to rest in one of the medical beds.

Iris takes a seat in her lab/office, taking care of Rachel distracted her for a moment. She lets out a deep breath and finally goes over what happened. Slade Wilson, an ex-Australian Special Intelligence Service operative, killed Moira Queen. Most likely due to some personal vendetta, but seeing a sword go through her was not an easy sight. According to DEO records (and hacked ARGUS files), he had the Mirakuru serum in his system. Reports from DEO operatives in Starling City talked about a weird substance contained within a vaccine from Sebastian Blood’s blood drive but unable to gain a sample. There’s also Brother Blood, the explosion of Queen Consolidated Applied Science Division, the stolen bio-transfuser, the Kord Industries centrifuge.

So many secret events have been occurring in Starling City that she can tell is about to unravel and she wonders how much her connection from the Starling City Sentinel know about it. But first she needs to start writing the beginning of all this because there’s no way she’s going to miss out on what she can feel is going to be a major event. Moving towards her laptop, she starts a post on _The Pyxis_ :

####  _The Death of Moira Queen, and The Events after The Undertaking._

_Posted on 4/25/2014 @ 01:48_

_After the speech from Moira Queen that states that she would continue campaigning for mayor, it is sad to say that she was murdered only a few hours after. Indicated by her wounds in her stomach, this was a murder. Unfortunately, this isn’t something that would be a surprise for the people of Starling City, especially after The Undertaking, aka the earthquake in the Glades. What has happened from then until now?_

 

///

 

####  _Who is Brother Blood? What is Mirakuru?_

_Posted on 5/10/2014 @ 15:27_

_Have you heard of the word mirakuru ? It’s Japanese for the word miracle . In Starling City, it is the name of the serum that has been given to the unwilling citizens in the Glades. It is a way to create super soldiers. Strength, senses, stamina, and endurance have grown beyond human capabilities. Reflex and ability at the peak of human abilities, plus the factor of accelerated healing. It sounds perfect right? It’s not. The side effects are not worth it, and the painful transformation makes it hard for people to know if they survived it or not. The pictures here show bleeding from their eyes and being in a comatose state with no vital signs. It takes a couple hours to find out if they survived or not..._

 

///

 

####  _The City of Blood and Streets of Fire_

_Posted on 5/25/2014 @ 11:36_

_The Church of Blood has finally made their attack on Starling City, and it’s another event that will be remembered for the city. Brother Blood, or rather Sebastian Blood’s plan to make the whole city suffer in order to rebuild it into something stronger with no economic unbalance was not idealistic or planned out. It will only lead Starling City to be a grave site. The pictures and videos from the recent attack show the side effects of the Mirakuru drug, the lack of self-control and enhanced aggressions that leads to homicidal acts._

_How can the city fight against such inhumane beings? National guards have surrounded the city to keep the Mirakuru soldiers from leaving, but who are the people there to protect those who can’t? Green Arrow isn’t perfect, but he fights those who have done wrong to the city of Starling. Remember “XX, you have failed this city?” And he didn’t fail his city during the attack either with his red partner that the public has chosen to call Arsenal and a group of people with bows and arrows who fought by their side. They looked like a league of assassins in the way they fought. Luckily, a cure was made for the Mirakuru serum that restored the soldiers back to normal..._

 

\- : - : - : -

 

Eddie’s keeping it a secret as to where he’s taking her. Last time it was a walk through the park. Before that, helping her with Mandarin and then a training session. She was fine not knowing for the other events, but today is her birthday so you can’t blame her for being impatient and curious. Joe still doesn’t know though, he doesn’t need to know that his partner keeps his daughter distracted from the pain of Barry’s coma. He kissed her on the head with a soft _happy birthday, baby girl_ before going to work, promising to cook her favorite meal when she gets home. She and Eddie are either doing an activity or talking about anything. He still won’t tell her how the DEO was still allowing him to stay in Central City. What is his new assignment?

“We’re here.”

He drove them to Keystone City, most importantly to the Keystone branch of the D.E.O. It isn’t a place she expected him to take her to so _why are we here?_ He doesn’t answer and walks towards the building, showing her and his badges (she doesn’t know how he got hers though) to the screen before walking inside. He talks as he leads her to the shooting range. “Since the day you allowed me to take care of you, all I have mostly done was take your mind off of what was going on. I helped make you forget. But you’re still tense, you’re still holding your emotions back and projecting this image of an upbeat, charismatic girl on the outside. You’re still human, Iris. You’re allowed to express those emotions.”

“And what emotions do you think I need to express?”

They’re at the shooting lanes now. “You’ve been shocked, depressed, guilty throughout this whole experience.” He hands her a gun. “Now allow yourself to feel angry.”

The first shot takes Iris by surprise. It’s unsteady and full of hesitation and only hits the shoulder of the target. The second shot is a little bit better as her hands grip the gun firmly. The third shot her eyes furrow into a glare. The rest came naturally as Iris allows herself to be angry. Why did she have to worry about not having pushed Barry out of the way? He’s the one who went to grab those _stupid_ iron metal chains. He should’ve known that he could’ve gotten struck by lightning! The doctors shouldn’t have talked about turning off life support because he’s going to wake up. Barry _will_ wake up. How can they just give up on him? Stupid STAR Labs with their particle accelerator. Why would they turn on a machine during a lightning storm?

Tears ran down her face as she allows her anger to run through her. Stupid Barry. Stupid doctors. Stupid particle accelerator. Stupid anyone who has given her a look of sympathy. Stupid everyone who tried to slow things down because she looks weak because she’s not.

Eddie allows her to shoot for the rest of their time there, not talking but switching out the magazines for her when she runs out of ammo. He drives Iris to Jitters for work, keeping her company during her shift despite them not talking. He usually drives them back to his apartment afterward, this time she asks her to drive her home. Instead of feeling like he overstepped his boundaries, Eddie’s body relaxes and he smiles, _of course_. His goodbye hugs provide her a bit of warmth.

The next day, Iris is ready to see him when he comes to Jitters. During her break, they talk and talk and laugh and it’s been a long time since she’s felt happy and free and painless. “I realized I never told you this, but did you know that my dad nicknamed you _Detective Pretty Boy?_ ”

“Wait, Detective what?”

Eddie fights with her sometimes, whenever she decides to pay for his coffee, but he’s covered Joe’s shifts so many times it’s the least she can do. Then he holds her hand and she shivers. It feels so similar to the times when Barry would come and visit and they would just chat about their day as a firm grip help their hands close. Sometimes Iris grabbed his hands, sometimes Barry did. That reminder gave her a bit of warmth. Eddie can tell that her mood changed a bit as he looks at her. Then he smiles and a flutter rises from her stomach as Iris smiles back.

 

\- : - : - : -

 

“Hey Barry it’s Iris. I don’t know if you can hear me but I hope you can because I really really need you to wake up.”

It’s getting dark outside but her father’s working late, and she plans on heading to Marlowe Research after visiting Barry. STAR Labs is empty beside them, Dr. Snow and Cisco already went home, having said their goodbyes, and Dr. Wells is who knows where.

“Like the other day, Detective Pretty Boy came into Jitters and he asked me out and I actually said yes. See I do dumb things like that when you’re not around.”

It isn’t something that Iris can say was unexpected because it wasn’t. Her co-workers who’ve previously teased about her relationship with Barry now teased her about Eddie. Mrs. Crosby looks at her sometimes the moment she sees her and states how she can see the signs of having a crush.

“And the house is… really quiet without you. I know that the reason you came to live with us was awful, but Barry, you made it home again. You made us a family again.” It was hard being in the house after her mother died. Joe would sometimes look at Iris with sad eyes. He would talk about how Francine was a good person who died tragically. He wouldn’t tell her how but all she could remember was a fire. Sometimes when he drank during the night and if Iris came downstairs, he would ramble about how her mom had to do what she had to do. Ir confused her, made her distance herself from him a bit because she didn’t know if she wanted to know the truth. When Barry came, they started talking more again, spending time together, eating together. And Iris let go whatever truth was about her mother’s death.

“We need you. I need you.”

She goes to hold his hand and lightning appears between their fingers.

_It’s alright, Iris. We’ll protect him, we’ll protect you._

It feels hot, but it isn’t uncomfortable. It’s pleasant, comforting. It’s the same voice from all those years ago. Tears of hope start to grow.

“You know once you wake up I’m not leaving your side for a minute,” she teases. “You’re stuck with me.”

“While I admire your dedication to Mr. Allen…”

Iris jumps and quickly turns around. Dr. Wells is by the door. It takes a bit not to shiver under his presence. How long was he waiting there for?

“... but when he does wake up, we don’t know how he has been affected and might need some testing to make sure he’s alright,” he continues.

“Like speech therapy? Physical therapy?” Iris asks even though she feels like Barry’s not going to need them. “The lack of physical activity should cause a weakening to his ability to move his body or mouth, right?”

There’s a gleam in his eyes, a combination of amusement and interest. He’s looking at her differently now. Instead of the police gaze that she's used to as if he’s forced to tolerate her, there’s curiosity directed instead. “Something like that. So there might be a chance that Mr. Allen would be busy the first couple months after he’s awake.”

Her hand stretches in front of Barry’s bed, gripping the blanket as if she could protect him. Iris doesn’t like the hungry look Dr. Wells gives him. It takes everything in her not to shiver and grab Barry to run. So instead she nods, “Thank you for letting me know.” She feels like a coward when she decides to leave STAR Labs instead of keeping Barry company for a little while longer.  


\- : - : - : -

 

The more Iris got used to coming to STAR Labs, the more she wandered from sitting next to Barry’s bed. Cisco provides comic relief to the room, Dr. Snow doesn’t talk much and Dr. Wells is usually somewhere else. When she’s not next to Barry, she’s usually talking about him. Her voice echoes through the cortex as she talks about him, her smile more real.

Dr. Wells, when he’s there, would listen, interested in Barry’s life. Dr. Snow would sometimes but eventually comes up with an obvious excuse to leave the room. Cisco stays and listens each time, sometimes he looks relieved when she continues to ramble. He may be funny and says a pop culture reference every now and then, but his eyes are haunted like Dr. Snow’s. Dr. Well’s eyes are guarded, she can’t tell what he’s thinking or feeling and that already makes Iris wary of him.

Twenty One Pilots blasts through the cortex one day when she comes in. Cisco’s standing at a workstation looking down at what looked like design plans on the desk. “What’re you doing Cisco?”

He looks at her surprised, then rushes to put the plans in a drawer. “Uh, nothing just uh- just something that Dr. Wells wants me to start developing.”

“Will it help Barry?” was her immediate question.

His eyes go from nervous to sympathetic and irritate her more than when he asked, numerous times actually if Barry was her boyfriend. “No, it’s not, it’s just a uh… he just wants me to Cisco a treadmill.”

“Cisco a treadmill?”

“Dr. Wells is a highly well-known physicist and Caitlin’s like a billion bioengineers and doctors combined. She has a Ph.D. and two doctorates and she’s only 28, did you know that?”

No, she didn’t and there’s a pit in her stomach that makes Iris feel self-conscious.

“Well I’m practically the best mechanical engineer in this city, and so Dr. Wells wants me to design a treadmill that goes above the local speed of sound. Don’t know why but it has to go up to supersonic or something.”

“Wow, are you making it withstand speed up to Mach Two or up to Mach Five?”

Cisco looks surprised at her comment as if he didn’t expect her to know something like that. Iris’ smile feels strained.

“I don’t know if I can make it withstand speed up to Mach Five, I mean I’m still designing it so maybe. But I think I can get it up to Mach Two.”

“Would Dr. Wells want it up to Mach Five?”

He’s quiet and she probably shouldn’t have asked that even though she still doesn’t trust Dr. Wells, so Iris starts to walk to the medbay. “I know you don’t trust Dr. Wells.” She stops and turns around. He’s staring down at his desk. “But he’s the closest thing I have to a father.” Then I learn why Cisco’s eyes are so haunted. He remembers the sound of the explosion, he hears the screams of his coworkers. He has nightmares too, of people hating him and STAR Labs and Dr. Snow and Dr. Wells, hating them for the loss of many lives and crushing people’s dreams. “He believes in me.”

His family only cares about his older brother Dante who’s gifted with playing the piano. His parents didn’t notice how interested in mechanics he was as he grew up. But he continued his passion, collecting tech magazines and pursuing his dreams until Dr. Wells hired him.

“The particle accelerator was supposed to change the world, not damage it. And-and I can’t just leave Dr. Wells all alone, how can you leave someone who always believed in you?”

Iris hates to think what would’ve happened to Barry if she didn’t believe in him. He constantly told her his theories, he hypothesized what happened the night his mom died, she was the one he told everything to. The thought of Barry not having someone to talk to, that believed in him, scares Iris, cause Barry deserves so much more than being bullied and chased growing up. She places his caramel chocolate cappuccino on his desk with a couple muffins, “You’re saving Barry’s life so consider me as someone who believes in you too.” A quick kiss on his cheek before she left to the medbay. “If you need someone to talk to, I’m here.”

 

\- : - : - : -

 

It takes another month before Iris finally calls Dr. Snow by her first name. She’s moodier than ever, a mixture of a frown and a glare permanently plastered on her face - she doesn’t even say _thank you_ when Iris hands her drink to her. SHe’s still polite, a curt polite full of hardly suppressed anger while ignoring everyone.

“She was supposed to get married to Ronnie today,” Cisco whispers to her.

Oh. And then she can see it. Behind all the anger, she’s hurting badly. Iris steps out to make a call. Dr. Snow comes to check up on Barry as she reads out a science journal article. Even the _click-clacks_ from her heels sound angry. She ignores Iris and stares determinedly at the monitors, pressing hard on her tablet before heading towards the door.

“Dr. Snow, what are your plans this afternoon?”

“Nothing.” Her voice full of ice. To anyone else, they would’ve stopped, but Iris persists. “Do you mind going with me somewhere later?”

“Listen I really don’t have time for-”

“I know that today was supposed to be your wedding day.”

She turns to glare, “Don’t.”

“Just do something with me later. I think it might help.”

She glares, but Iris can see that she’s curious. ”What is it?”

Iris smiles. “It’s a surprise.”

She stays quiet, silently contemplating before answering. “I’m done at three.”

 

\- : - : - : -

 

Eddie hands Iris a thermos containing some type of tea he wants her to try. She’s surprised when he hands Dr Snow a thermos as well, and judging by her wide eyes she feels the same way.

“This is my boyfriend, Eddie Thawne,” Iris introduces.

Her eyebrows rise and glances back at STAR Labs and Iris can tell that she probably thought that Barry’s her boyfriend. She shakes his hand quickly as she introduces herself and only asks where they’re going once. On their way there, she stays silent in the back.

The tea Eddie chooses for Iris smells like fresh apples and wildflower. Every once in a while he decides to bring a cup of tea that he wants her to try, sometimes she likes them sometimes she doesn’t, but they usually keep her warm.

“You’re going to make me addicted to your tea you know,” Iris had joked once.

“Better than your addiction to coffee,” he joked back.

The fruity taste leaves her rejuvenated and makes her wonder what kind of coffee she’ll have to whip up to get him back. Discreetly, Iris shifts from her seat to look at Dr. Snow who was sipping her tea slowly. She wonders what Eddie got her. She also wonders if that is what her facial expression looked like when Eddie brought her to the DEO, this time they’re at The Battlefield. “Isn’t this a recreational facility?”

“It also has anger rooms and an indoor shooting range,” Iris states.

She looks frustrated. “Look, I really think this is just a waste of my time. I don’t know how to shoot with a gun, I hardly even know how to hold one! Just drive me back to STAR Labs so I can head home.”

Iris’ mouth opens, about to try and convince but Eddie interrupts. “Dr. Snow, how did you like the tea?”

She blinks at him. “Uh, it was good.”

“What did it taste like to you?”

“It tasted like strawberry and spearmint, and a bit of rose and something else…”

“Hibiscus,” Eddie answers. “How did it make you feel? Did it help you relax and unwind a bit?”

She doesn't look at him. “It helped a bit.”

“Why did you try the tea in the first place?”

She looks up, confused. Because you gave it to me.”

Eddie just smiles at her. “But I didn’t force you to drink it.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Listen, I am trained to analyze body language and interpret identities of people before I even meet them. When I first saw you, I can see the levels of stress and irritation coming off from you. But I can also see that you’re upset, you’re shaking but not enough for people to notice. You need to vent it out, I know you _want_ to vent it out. You may seem stern to people but you don’t want to be seen as a hateful person. So let us help you.”

Damn. He’s really good at persuading and motivating people. Dr. Snow’s gaze is a bit unfocused now as she looks between Eddie and iris. “I don’t know how to shoot with a gun.” There’s a waver in her voice.

Eddie gives her a charming smile, and Iris can’t help but think about a golden retriever. “I know. And we’re not going to the shooting range. Have you seen their anger rooms?”

Eddie and Iris stand behind Dr. Snow, near a wall as she wrecks everything she can with a metal baseball bat and crowbars. She chose her wedding playlist to go through the speakers as she screams and yells and cries and _Fuck you Ronnie Raymond! How could you?!_

The music’s beautiful and poetic and completely clashes with her throwing and breaking objects around the room with no regards to her safety. It’s a side of her that Iris never expected to see yet completely understood. After their time is up, she’s smiling and her body’s more relaxed. The ride back to STAR Labs is more communicative as she talks about Ronnie.

“He sacrificed his life for us and no one will ever know.”

Iris moves around her seat to grab her hand in the back. “We know and we’ll remember.” It’s the first time she directs a smile at her. She looks pretty.

“If you ever want to talk, Dr. Snow, just know that you can come talk to either of us,” she says when Eddie parks at STAR Labs.

“Caitlin,” Iris looks at her as she gets out of the car. She smiles at Iris when she goes by her window. “You can call me Caitlin, Iris.”

She smiles back, “Well Caitlin, hopefully, we can get some coffee together one day.”

“Or tea,” Eddie interrupts.

She laughs while Iris rolls her eyes. “I’d like that.”

When Eddie drops Iris home, she pulls him in for a long kiss and drags him towards the house.

“Iris, your dad,” he pants out but doesn’t seem to be rejecting her advances.

“He has the night shift, remember?” she reminds him as she leads them upstairs.

That night, Iris finally thanks him for taking care of her these past few months. Not just for making sure that she’s not forgetting about herself but reminding herself of who she is, of who she wants to be, of whom Barry sees in me. He’s helped put her back on her path, he’s helped give her hope, helped her connect with people and take a step towards helping them. Eddie’s more than just a distraction, he’s her support during these hard times and for that Iris is eternally grateful.

 

\- : - : - : -

 

No matter how many times she blinks or shakes her head, Iris continues to see blood stains and her handwriting around her. If it isn’t for the fact that she knew where everything was, she would be making the customer’s medium dark roast with two pumps of caramel wrong.

“Iris, are you okay?” Tracy, her coworker, asks.

She plasters a smile on her face. “I’m alright.”

She’s just tired. There’s so much to do now that the school year has started again and she isn’t ready to deal with it. Her advisor said that if she takes a few more Journalism courses that she can graduate with a minor in journalism along with her Ph.D. in criminal psychology. She probably will as it’s been helping her write _The Pyxis_ blog.

“Hey, why don’t you do order and refill duty on the floor?” Tracy says.

“Thanks,” Iris says with a grateful smile.

Wandering through the crowd, Iris writes down people’s orders, refills cups, and speaks to some of her friends who are there. Internally, her mind wanders to the two reports she needs to deliver, talking to Mrs. Crosby on helping her clients, training with Douglas, then meeting with Eddie afterward. She’s already stopped by STAR Labs to see Barry, something made her leave instantly after unconsciously deciding to kiss him on the cheek and feeling that spark of lightning again, but maybe it wouldn’t hurt to see him again.

Ingrid Michaelson’s Girls Chase Boys plays through the speakers as Iris refills another customer’s cup. The music fades when she takes a glance at the door, everything’s silent, everything’s fading away. Cause she sees him, he’s right there and walking right through the door and walking towards her. _Barry’s right there_.

It takes so much in her to not cry then and there because if it is a dream then Iris doesn’t know if she can handle it. But then he smiles, he smiles that wistful, rapt expression and _oh my god_ , this is reality.

Iris rushes towards him, her body wanting, _needing_ to feel the heat of his skin. And when he wraps his arms around her and lifts her up, that’s when she feels it seep through every inch of her. She finally feels warm after nine long months and everything around her is so much brighter.

“You’re awake,” she gasps out, taking him all in. “Why didn’t STAR Labs call us?”

“I just woke up,” he tells her, a radiant smile on his face.

“Should you even be on your feet?” How can he even be on his feet? His body should be weak after not moving for nine months, he shouldn’t have been able to even pick her up.

She’s about to question him on it but his smile continues to grow. “Iris, I’m ok.”

She wants to smile back, forget as if those nine months full of nightmares and screams and tears never happened. But she can’t, cause they did happen. His eyes are smiling too but she knows her’s isn’t, not right now.

“I watched you die, Barry.” And Iris hates how she makes his smile disappears. “You kept dying, your heart kept stopping.”

Then he’s smiling again and places her hand flat on his chest where his heart is. “Still beating,” he reassures her.

“Feels really fast,” she smiles. Because it is and Barry nods as well, indicating that it’s real. That Barry’s real and here and _alive_.

A crash comes from behind her and Iris turns to see Tracy picking up a coffee mug from the floor. She looks at her, concerned, hand still held in Barry’s flat on his chest. “Tracy, are you ok?”

“Yeah, I got it,” she replies. When Iris turns back to Barry, he has a confused, startled look on his face. She would’ve asked him about it but too many thoughts ran through her mind now that he was awake.

“My dad’s going to be so happy to see you,” Iris says with a smile, and it grows when a smile appears on Barry’s as well.

“Let me grab my stuff, ok? Be right back.”

 

\- : - : - : -

 

Her dad is quick to walk over to them once he sees them both arrive at the precinct. “You scared the hell out of us, kid.”

“Yeah that was quite the nap you took there, baby face, and you still look 12,” Vukuvich said.

“You look ok, are you really?” Joe asks.

“Yeah.” Barry reassures him.

“Detective West, we got a 515 in progress at Central City Bank. Two dead. Storm’s really picking up on the south side, grab your rain gear.” An officer tells him.

“I’m sorry Barry, I gotta run.”

“Do you need my help?”

“No, you take it easy. There’ll be plenty for you to do once you’ve settled in.” Joe says to Barry then calls out, “Let’s go, partner!”

“Hey Allen,” Eddie says as he’s putting on his jacket. “Glad to see you.”

“Thanks Eddie.”

“Hey Iris.”

“Hey Detective,” Iris greets him in a calm yet friendly tone. “You should go my dad doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

Eddie nods then turn to Barry, “Glad you’re back.”

He nods and smiles as he looks at the precinct. It slowly disappears when he walks towards the memorial of Chyre with his photograph and badge.

“The night of the explosion Clyde Mardon shot and killed Chyre.” Iris explains, then includes “Mardon and his brother died trying to escape, their plane crashed.” Which is what the police said, not what she thinks.

Barry looks at the glass case, shaking his head sadly.

“Iris,” Officer Vukuvich calls out. “Got a minute?”

She walks over to him, already knowing what he’s about to ask while opening her bag.

“Did the external lab give you the report on-”

“On the drunk hit and run? Got it right here,” she tells him, the report out in front.

Before he can thank her, there’s a loud crash from behind along with a strong wind, the criminal flat against the table. “Screw you!” he calls out as they restrained him and dragged him away from the office. Barry has that confused, startled look again. “Are you okay?”

“Uh yeah, I’m fine. I just need some air. But I’ll call you tonight, alright?” Barry says before leaving.

Iris watches him, a look of disbelief on her face. She takes a step forward, about to follow him to make sure that he is really alright (he just woke up from a nine-month coma and he just needs _air_?) when she hears Captain Singh call her name.

“Iris, you got that report for me?”

He doesn’t ask if the external labs have given her the reports anymore, now he just asks if she has them. “Thanks, Iris,” he says with a knowing smile. She smiles and nods back. Despite not verbally confirming that he knows, Iris can tell and while at first upset that she was stupid enough to write a report sleep-deprived and accidentally signing her name, it’s nice to have someone in the precinct know what is really going on.

Iris rushes out of the precinct in the same direction that Barry went but he’s long gone. She stares at the police car with the broken back window. What had happened? Something doesn’t seem right.

 

\- : - : - : -

 

The people at the clinic could tell that something good happened based on the large grin on her face.

“Barry’s awake,” is all Iris says and god it feels good to say it. Hugs and grins are given back to her and they feel so much better than the apologies and sympathetic smiles they have her before.

She’s still curious as to what had the broken police car window in the back of the precinct. Fortunately, she has a client that can help her find out. Alice Mendez is an adorable pixie-haired girl that just started her freshman year of high school. She arrives at Iris’s office with a sketchpad in her hands.

“Anything specific you want to cover today?” Iris asks her. “Or to just talk about?”

“There’s something I need to draw. Let me finish first then we’ll talk.” Alice says and starts to draw before Iris can give her reply.

Iris, used to Alice’s behavior by now, decides to pull up the teen’s progress on the database. Clear scans of Alice’s previous sketches and artwork appeared in on her laptop, each showing an event that has or has not happened yet. For example, her sketch drawn last Thursday was of Clyde Mardon, supposedly dead but is not ( _“My sketches have never been wrong, Ms. West.”_ ), who was creating a storm while robbing a bank. It can explain the recent bank robberies that have been occurring where storms have been said to appear inside. She looks up at the young girl who’s deeply concentrated on her newest sketch and smiles. Chrono Vision Artistry is what Max calls her gift; the ability to see the past, present, and future through visual artwork.

After scanning through the rest of Alice’s file, Iris starts to go through her assignments for her classes. Some of the syllabuses listed the assignments she’ll be doing throughout the semester while others didn’t. For her journalism course, her professor already started assigning when each project is due and what to write about. The first assignment isn’t that bad, to write about an event revolving around the STEM field. She knows that there is an event honoring Simon Stagg at her university soon. It’s something that she can handle herself and had thought about dragging Max to, but Barry just woke up and it could be a great way for them to starting hanging out again. She can just tell him that she needs help with the explanation on organ transplants. It gets her excited, the thought of Barry finally awake and being able to spend time with him again. Oh, this semester is…

“... going to be quite interesting.”

Wait, what? Iris turns to Alice who had just spoken as she stares at her sketchpad.

“What was that, Alice?” she asks.

“Oh, nothing really, Ms. West.” Alice says while using a 4B pencil. “It’s just that this week seems to be marking the appearance of someone important.”

She turns her sketchpad around to show a sketch of a man wearing a full-on superhero suit with a couple lightning bolts in place. He appears to be running so it’s hard to see his face, but what little Iris can tell reminds her of someone.

“Who?”

“I don’t know,” Alice answers. “But I’m starting to see him more and more in the future.”

She flips to a couple other pages where the man seems to be fighting who seems to be Clyde Mardon. A sketch with a tornado and a torn up farm. There’s a colored one where Iris can tell that the man is Caucasian and the suit appears leather and red.

“He’s going to be someone important in the future.” Alice tells her.

Iris seems transfixed on the colored sketch. He looks so familiar but she can’t tell from where. “Yeah, I believe you.”

 

\- : - : - : -

 

“Can I help you, detective?” Iris greets Eddie the next day in a cheeky tone while at work.

She hands him his usual iced coffee and sits across from him. It’s fun to call him just ‘detective,’ it reminds her of when they first met and she just called ‘agent.’

“You know your dad’s not around, right? You can stop calling me that.” Despite his claim, he chuckles and smiles at her.

“Aw. I like having a boyfriend that isn’t shot to death.” She tells him before leaning over, framing his face, and giving him a kiss. Eddie grabs her waist and pulls her off her seat, bringing her closer to him. She feels his warmth and enjoys it, but it’s not as heated as the hug she got from Barry yesterday. She’s sure that no hug will bring her as much warmth as Barry’s.

Iris pulls away and looks up to see Barry right by Jitters, watching them with a look of surprise on his face. There’s also a bit of sadness within them that made her heart clench. Suddenly, it feels wrong having Eddie’s hands on her waist, and so she pulls them away. If Eddie’s surprised by her actions, he doesn’t show it.

“I need to talk to Barry,” Iris tells him quickly before walking over to Barry.

She grabs his hands softly and slowly leads him across the street. She’s nervous for some strange reason, maybe because she wonders if he approves of her relationship? After all, Barry’s opinion is one of the few that matters to her. There’s also another reason why she could be feeling nervous.

“You can’t tell my dad. He doesn’t know about me and Eddie.” Despite having looked chummy when Barry first got into a coma, no one suspected anything at the precinct. Joe had his own suspicion but it went away during the first few months of Barry’s coma when Eddie was trying to avoid her. They made sure to keep their distance at the precinct but also being cordial to one another.

“Doesn’t seem like anyone’s in on the secret.” He says dryly as they walked towards the bridge nearby.

“I was gonna tell you.” Iris blurts out. He’s upset, she can tell and she always hates it when he’s upset. She wants to let him know that she wanted to tell him so badly what has been going on in her life since he woke up yesterday. “When you were in the hospital, Eddie covered my father’s shifts so we could both be with you. I thanked him with a cup of coffee and things just kind of happened. And it’s good.”

He’s tight-lipped, his gaze flickering between Iris’ and the ground for a moment before looking back to her. “Dating your partner’s daughter? Isn’t that against department regulations?”

“Why are you so upset?” Iris asks while also getting upset herself. She had hoped that she would get his approval, but it doesn’t seem like that’s going to happen.

“I just don’t like having to lie to your dad, you know?” He tells her before they both hear the sirens of a police car.

Their gazes follow the sound and see the police car swerving and coming towards them. Suddenly, Iris feels Barry’s hands on her body, pulling them both away from the direction of the moving car. She’s dazed and bewildered when she finds herself down on the ground, her right side of the body in a bit of pain due to the hardness of the concrete. When she pulls herself up, she looks around to notice that Barry is gone.

“Barry?” The entire street is empty besides the crashed police car, through the window she can see the driver unconscious. Iris pulls out her phone as she walks over. “Hello? Eddie?” She opens the door and quickly scans the man for any injuries. “There’s been an accident on the bridge near Whilshire Road, major injuries though, requesting for an ambulance.” When she ends her call a fog starts to settle faster than anything she’s ever seen, nearby she can hear the sounds of another car crash and rushes towards it.

Iris finds Barry there, staring at a turned over car. She runs towards him, passing by the other car that is on fire. “Barry!” He faces her direction and she scans his body for any injuries. There isn’t any except for a split on his forehead with a bit of blood coming out. She pulls him into a hug, relieved that he’s alright. When she pulls away, she notices that the fog was completely gone.

“Why did you run off like that? Where’d you go?” Iris asks him.

“I was… uhm… the runaway car… I tried to, uh, see who it was.” He stutters out his answer, but it’s jumbled up as if he’s trying to think of an excuse.

She wants to question him more but the sounds of police cars and an ambulance start to get closer towards where they are. Once the policemen get out of the car, they’re quick to block off the crowd and confine the scene.

“That poor man,” Iris says when she sees the EMTs bring the man onto the stretcher and onto the ambulance. “The way that fog came in, I have never seen anything like it.”

“Barry!” They hear Joe call out. “Iris.” She rolls her eyes, recognizing the tone in his voice. “I’m all right, Dad.”

“What were you thinking, having her out here?” Joe asks Barry. Iris tries to but in, to defend Barry but Joe’s quick to scold her. “And I told you, when you see danger, you run the other way. You’re not a cop.”

“Because you wouldn’t let me,” Iris complains sharply, her voice raising a bit. It’s the same argument all over again.

“You’re damn right!”

“Joe, I need to talk to you.” Barry quickly says before Joe could say another word.

“It can wait,” Joe tells him.

“No, _now_.” It takes them by surprise, Iris and Joe. His tone was firm, but he looks so nervous as if he was spooked by something. It confuses Iris on why he’s acting like that all of a sudden. When her father walks off with Barry towards the side, she takes the opportunity to scroll through the messages that Max, Douglas, and Catherine had sent her. She groans while reading them, apparently, there was a bystander that witness a fight between Lady Faith and a man in an orange-yellow outfit that was able to generate the heat of the sun. She had run towards Lady Faith to thank her while also grabbing hold of her suit and was accidentally transported into Marlowe Research with Max and Douglas present. They’re currently debating whether they should bring her to the DEO and erase her memories or tell her to keep it a secret.

She turns to where her father and Barry are, knowing that she had to tell them that she had to leave when she sees that Joe is yelling at him. She can see Barry’s clenched jaw, his tense stance and she quickly walks over to them, hearing a bit of what Joe was saying.

“... am sorry, son. I knew it, the jury knew it. He’s paying for what he did.”

Iris jumps in, coming between her father and Barry. “Dad, enough.”

“Iris,” Joe warns to her before looking back at Barry. “I’ve done my best to take care of you since that night. I’ve never asked for anything in return. Not even a thank-you. But what I do ask now is that you for once in your life see things as they are.”

Barry doesn’t say anything, he doesn’t even seem surprised at Joe’s response. But Iris can tell that he’s close to crying. She wants to pull him into a hug and comfort him but he walks away, leaving the police scene. Iris gives her father a look of disbelief before walking the other way. Eddie’s walking towards her, a folded piece of paper in his hands. He smiles but Iris just gives him a quick one, drops it, then continues to stride out of the area.

“You’re not going to believe this. We got the eyewitness sketch of the robber from the bank job. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that’s Clyde Mardon…” She hears Eddie say before she’s out of hearing distance.

 

\- : - : - : -

 

Her name is Holly Torres, a year younger than Max and currently studying at the University of Janelia with a major in Secondary Education. She is also the daughter of the man that Lady Faith had just fought, Dr. John Hansen, and is an unwilling experiment of her father’s along with her mother Daniela Torres. Or rather _was_ now that her father is in jail.

“I… I can see auras around people,” she confesses to them when they decide to interrogate her. She twirls her ginger red hair between her fingers while darting her brown eyes between them and the ground. Iris can tell she’s not used to this type of situation. “Specific colors indicate their current emotions, but if there’s a sparkle then that means they have powers, powers like mine.”

It’s not like she’s the first metahuman they’ve met, but those have usually been in Central or Keystone City and they’ve never experimented before. Although, with her, they’ll be able to know which people are metahumans as they walk through the street. It will sure make helping them easier.

It keeps Iris and the team busy for the next couple of days. They help her exercise her ability while looking for new metahumans. It takes time out of Iris’s schedule and she hasn’t seen Barry since the day near the bridge. Hopefully, she’ll have time to meet up with him soon to cheer him up and distract him with all the tv shows that he has missed for the past nine months.

She hides a yawn as she hands over the change to one of the police officers and starts to prepare his and the rest of the officers’ drinks, nodding when they thank her. It’s not always fun having the opening shift but at least she has a break coming soon. Alice had texted her earlier: **What does ‘something strong’ mean? Cause it seems you’re about to find out the after effects of it.**

She wants to call the young girl, ask what she is talking about and if whatever she is talking about is what Eddie is looking for. She’s about to hand over two trays of coffee to the policemen when their radio goes off.

“This is Officer Perez. There’s been a 10-71 at the Brown Dairy Farm. Requesting an 11-41. Currently have Detective West, Detective Thawne, and CSI Allen at the scene. Requesting backup.”

All of the policemen rush out of the coffee shop, the closest one grabbing the two trays with a quick nod before leaving. It takes Iris a moment to realize what is going on while also hearing the news report on the nearby tv screen.

“It appears that late last night another freak attack of weather has occurred on the outskirts of Central City. A tornado has hit Brown Dairy Farm, leaving wreckage and some people injured…”

So there’s been a tornado, a 10-71 (shooting), with a requested 11-41 (ambulance needed) at Brown Dairy Farm. And of course, the men that she’s close to being involved in the situation. Iris sighs and checks the time, quickly removing her apron and putting on her jacket once she realizes that her break has started. She can hear the sirens and rushes towards the sound.

 

\- : - : - : -

 

Practically half of the precinct is at the scene of the crime by the time she gets there. She exchanges an acknowledging nod at Officer Vukuvich who lets her through the police tape and sees Eddie being taken care of by the EMT and Barry talking to her father near a car. Iris goes over to Eddie first, making sure that he’s okay as he keeps an ice pack to the side of his head.

She doesn’t hear the conversation Joe is having with Barry.

“But you do not tell Iris. She can never know about what you can do. About any of it. I want her safe. If there are more people out there like Mardon, or the man who killed your mom, I don’t want her anywhere near this.” The detective tells him.

Although Iris will never realize it, this is a scene that Alice has sketched out before. A conversation scene between her father and Barry. The young teen had chuckled when she first drew it out on paper, finding it funny how he wants to protect Iris from danger by not telling her the truth. They don’t know that since her last year as an undergraduate that Iris has always been near danger.

“Are you both, alright?” Iris asks as she walks towards them. “I was at Jitters when the cops got called out here. They said there was a shooting. “

“We’re fine. We’re all fine.” Her father reassures her before walking away.

“What happened here?”

Barry shrugs, “Just your everyday kind of bad guy shootout. Promise.”

Iris gives him a look, she can tell that he’s not telling the truth. “C’mon Barry. You can’t lie to me. I know you too well.” This has never been a problem before. For Barry tell her the truth.

He glances to the right where her father is before looking back at her straight in the eye. “I would never lie to you, Iris.”

She feels weird, knowing that he still isn’t telling the truth before he pulls her into a hug. The feeling is then exchanged with guilt as she melts in his embrace. Despite getting a hug when he first woke up, she's still not used to his warmth. It's something she'll always continue to need. Iris needs it as much as his honesty. But it’s not like she’s always been telling him the truth either.

**Author's Note:**

> I will be updating the rating and character tag as the story progresses. I would really appreciate it if you guys commented so I know if this is being well-received and that people are enjoying it.


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